Cardiff Parkway: New railway station plans approved

Plans have been approved for a new railway station in east Cardiff.

Cardiff Parkway railway station will be built on farmland in St Mellons, between Cypress Drive and Heol Las.

It is unclear when construction will start but the station is due to open in 2024.

A neighbouring business park has also been given planning permission, but concerns were raised about the height of the office buildings and the impact on ecology and wildlife.

Cardiff council granted planning permission for the development at a meeting on Wednesday, but councillors raised the concerns as the site is on the edge of the Gwent Levels, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Most building in the area are two storeys tall and the landscape is very flat, but the business park could include buildings up to 15 storeys tall.

Councillor Iona Gordon said: "I'm 100% behind the railway station, but it's at a huge cost.

"We need and want a station but [this is] at the cost of massive development of tall buildings on the flat Gwent Levels and I'm really concerned about the impact this is going to have."

The development is being privately built by Cardiff Parkway Developments Ltd, with backing from the Welsh government.

Developers previously said the new railway station would mean journeys to Cardiff Central in seven minutes, and the business park would have the potential to provide 6,000 jobs.

Chairman of Cardiff Parkway Developments, Nigel Roberts said: "The project will bring investment to an area of Cardiff that needs it, create new employment opportunities, and better connect people in this region of south-east Wales.

Many residents in the area backed the new station, which would massively reduce journey times into the city, but echoed concerns about the height of some of the buildings and the impact on local wildlife.

Throughout the area runs a network of ecologically-important narrow watercourses called reens and the plans include conditions to maintain and protect them, as well as to replace tress cut down with newly-planted ones, and to create wildlife corridors for protected species.

A new park would be created, as well as several footpaths and cycling routes.

Natasha Welch, 38, from St Mellons, said she thought it was amazing, especially for the people who do not drive.

Janette Frowen, 46, added: "St Mellons, I think, has been kind of neglected, there's not a lot of new infrastructure or new facilities.

"It'll definitely be a good thing because trying to get out of St Mellons in a morning is an absolute nightmare and if you can jump on a train and be in town for seven minutes.. lots of other parts of Cardiff have got train stations, the train lines already there, it's literally the main line, so it's just a case of just putting a platform there."

The height of the office buildings was still undecided, according to council bosses, who said 15 storeys was the maximum, but not necessarily what would actually be built.

East Cardiff currently has no railway stations. Marshfield, a village east of St Mellons, had a station until it closed in 1959.

Developers estimate the station will accommodate 800,000 passengers a year, with eight trains an hour to Cardiff and Newport, as well as direct mainline journeys to London, north Wales, Manchester and Bristol.