Council approves extension for Grangetown temporary housing
Temporary housing in Grangetown will be retained for up to five years Photo cred: Cardiff Council
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Cardiff Council approved the retention of temporary housing in Grangetown for up to five years
The 52-home site provides emergency accommodation for people at risk of homelessness
The area, the former Grangetown Gas Works, is earmarked for a future permanent housing development
Cardiff Council has approved planning permission to keep temporary housing used to accommodate people facing homelessness in Grangetown.
The 52-home development on the former Grangetown Gas Works, Ferry Road, currently consists of a mixture of bungalows and three apartment blocks.
Temporary accommodation was established in 2022 and 2023 on part of the site after the council used emergency powers to house people at risk of homelessness.
The whole area is earmarked for a permanent housing development in the future.
The council’s planning committee granted permission for the retention of the temporary housing for up to five years at a meeting on March 13.
Planning documents state that the development “will continue to provided much needed emergency housing, making efficient use of available brownfield land”.
Committee views - “Perfectly good and acceptable stop-gap”
In the planning committee meeting on March 13, Conservative Cllr Sean Driscoll said: “It’s a fantastic facility and I know that the people who live there are really happy with it.”
Cllr Driscoll added that it would be beneficial to have a plan of what will happen in the future with the people living there consulted as he stated that “five years are going to go quickly” and for those “living with that worry all the time” it could be difficult.
In response, the council’s housing officer said that the council’s housing department stated families usually lived at the site for around a year.
Conservative Cllr Robson also commented on the site and questioned the use of emergency powers in this case, which he thought were reserved for a “disaster”, he said: “I’m not so sure in my opinion this comes under that.”
Cllr Robson clarified that any reservations he had were due to planning process rather than the site’s use and said: “I support the application. We are supporting people who need help, I just wish it had been done through the proper process…to make sure we weren’t left with a retrospective planning application,” adding he felt that the council had been “lucky” no one lived close by and that things “could have been different” with a different site.
Labour Cllr Michael Michael called it a “perfectly good use of planning powers” and said: “Homelessness is a serious issue - we have 900 people on the waiting list in this city,” adding that there around 4,000 outstanding properties to build which are delayed due to a shortage of contractors.
He continued: “This is a perfectly good and acceptable stop-gap until we are in a position to look at something permanent.”
In September 2024, a Bevan Foundation and Shelter Cymru report found that the equivalent of 1 in every 215 households in Wales had been places in temporary accommmodation by their local authority.
The full application can be viewed on the council’s website using the reference 22/03050/FUL
