To: Cardiff Council & local community leaders

Subject: Formal objection to the planning application proposing the change of use of the former Ibis Budget Hotel, Tyndall Street

We, the undersigned residents, local business owners, and community stakeholders in the Butetown/Atlantic Wharf area, OBJECT to the planning application proposing the change of use of the former Ibis Budget Hotel, Tyndall Street (Tyndall Court Hostel) in Cardiff. Since the hotel’s conversion into large-scale supported accommodation (or hostel) in January 2025, the facility has been the focus of rampant and escalating anti-social behaviour, including frequent incidents of open drug use, substance abuse, suspected drug dealing, shoplifting, and harassment of local residents, which is undermining public safety and community cohesion in our neighbourhood and threatening the future of local businesses in the area.

The scale of the impact is not trivial. Local residents report feeling unsafe when walking past the building, walking in their local streets, or using the parks in the area, with drug-taking and drug dealing visible at all hours. Combined with theft and shoplifting in the vicinity, the facility has become a magnet for criminal and disruptive behaviour, adversely affecting the daily lives of people who live and work here. The hostel has been referred to in local commentary (including a documentary on the YouTube channel The Central Club) as a “crack mansion”-style environment, highlighting the severity of the issue and the reputational harm to the area, not to mention the anxiety and distress caused to long-standing community members.

Furthermore, the decision to house over 100 high-need individuals, including early-release prisoners, in one building in close proximity to other hostels, and adjacent to residential homes, businesses, schools, and commercial properties has created a concentrated pressure-point for social disorder and severely harmed the character and safety of the area.

The lack of adequate community and business consultation by the Council (as reported in resident media) meant that local voices and local businesses were sidelined, yet the consequences are being lived day-to-day by the community. For our neighbourhood to thrive, we require not just housing solutions, but responsible, well-managed and proportionate accommodation provision — rather than one that becomes a hub for anti-social behaviour.

The Council has now submitted a planning application in an attempt to continue the use of the building as a hostel for a further three years. This would result in long-term and possibly irreversible harm to the local community and to businesses in the area and undermine the planned regeneration of Butetown and Atlantic Wharf. If this permission be granted it is highly likely that the hostel will become permanent. It is important that you OBJECT to this planning application as well as signing this petition.

• Planning application reference: 25/02406/FUL
• Object to the planning application here

Therefore, we demand that Cardiff Council:

1. Withdraw planning application 25/02406/FUL.
2. Immediately suspend new admissions to Tyndall Court until a full independent assessment of the behavioural, safety, and neighbourhood impact is conducted.
3. Commit to closing the facility as a hostel/homeless-accommodation centre and either re-instate the hotel, or re-design the building for an alternative use (for example smaller-scale supported units dispersed across the city) that will not create a concentrated high-risk environment.
4. Engage in meaningful discussion with the local residents’ association (e.g., the Atlantic Wharf Residents’ Association), local ward councillors, and local businesses to agree a sustainable, long-term solution and to ensure future accommodation-provision decisions are city-wide and avoid over-concentration in this locality.
5. Develop a long-term strategy for the future of the building and tackling homelessness in Cardiff whilst supporting local residents and local businesses.
6. Provide transparent monitoring data on incidents of anti-social behaviour, drug-related offences and shoplifting arising in the immediate vicinity of Tyndall Court, and commit to a reduction strategy backed by measurable targets and timeframes.

We believe these actions are essential to restore safety and quality of life in our neighbourhood, and to protect vulnerable individuals from being housed in an environment that is evidently failing both them and the community.