Against the Division of Butetown
We oppose the proposed separation of the current Butetown community into new "Butetown" and "Cardiff Bay" communities and call upon the authorities to reject the proposal submitted to them at the initial consultation. Reasons for opposing include but are not limited to:
1. There is no strong reason for creation of a “Cardiff Bay” community.
2. Butetown is currently a diverse multi-ethnic ward. Segregating Butetown from the proposed Cardiff Bay will concentrate ethnic identities and make the proposed Butetown one of the poorest communities in Wales.
3. The Tiger Bay and Atlantic Wharf parts of Butetown currently receive a lot of investment from “Section 106” which is funding received when development takes place in an area. If the newer re-developing parts were separated from the older parts then we fear this funding would no longer be possible.
4. The proposed Cardiff Bay community, which includes the new developments in Grangetown is not what many would describe as a community. The Butetown and Grangetown sides are separated by the water of the bay and it takes up to 10 minutes to walk over the link road bridge from the Grangetown side to the Butetown side.
5. There is not a single, church, mosque, library or community centre in the proposed Cardiff Bay community. There is just one school. Many residential properties are holiday lets. Is this a community?
6. The proposal would split Tiger Bay from its historic link with the docks and the water.
7. Due to population growth in the current area known as Butetown (which includes Tiger Bay, Atlantic Wharf and the re-developed docks / Cardiff Bay) is expected to have a larger population in a few years time than Splott or Grangetown – yet we only have one Councillor. They each have 3.
8. The proposals would make the creation of two single member wards at County Council level more probable. Generally the creation of single-member wards are supposed to be avoided.
Comment