Georgina Phillips

I had been led to believe it would be several months before the Conservation Area Appraisal of Old St. Mellons would be considered by the Environmental Scrutiny Committee. However, I received notification just yesterday (16th March) that a special meeting has been called for Wednesday 21st March at 5.00pm. This will take place at County Hall, Committee Room 3. The meeting is open for members of the public to attend as observers.

It is also possible for any resident wishing to speak at the meeting to do so at the discretion of the Chair. It would of course be a very positive way forward, since it is always constructive for members of a committee to hear the views of local residents. Therefore if there is any resident who would wish, or be willing to do this, please give me a ring on 2077 7784 and I will contact the Chair of the Scrutiny Committee and do my best to organise it.

This is happening much faster than I had anticipated, and not giving us a lot of time to organise everything. After the Scrutiny Committee meeting of Wednesday, there is a meeting of the Council the very next day. I will now present the petition at that meeting.
We have 148 signatures on this present petition, and if there is anyone else who has not yet signed and would like to, please give me a ring and I will call on you during the next few days.

I have spoken to Sophie Howe, and she will be continuing to assist in lobbying. I will also be speaking to Sue Essex at the weekend, in order to ensure that she is kept up to date on the situation.

I have no idea how soon this report will be referred back to the Executive Business Meeting. Everything will depend on how long it takes for the scrutiny committee to respond to the proposals. At this time the only thing I can say is that I will continue to keep all local residents fully informed.

Further to my last leaflet, here is the latest news for Beech Tree Park

We (Sue Essex, Sophie Howe and I) have continued to lobby Council Officers and Executive Members to withdraw the proposals to remove Beech Tree Park from the conservation area.

The Executive Business Meeting (EBM) took place at County Hall on Thursday 8th March, with the report from the conservation officers on the agenda with a recommendation to agree all of its proposals. The previous day, I had contacted every member of the executive to inform them that I wanted to present a residents petition to full Council rather than to the EBM, and requested that they defer their decision until then. I also sought the help of Greg Owens (Leader of my Group and Councillor for the Ward of Llandaff who has a right to speak at the EBM) and he readily agreed to help ensure that your concerns were properly addressed.

Your direct lobbying, together with such strong representations paid off. Not only was the report deferred, it also has to be examined by a Scrutiny Committee, which means that we have considerably extended our breathing space and involved more elected members in the decision-making process. And, you can be quite sure that I will be speaking at the scrutiny stage to present the strongest possible arguments against the proposal.

Now I have to decide whether to present the petition at full Council on the 22nd March, or wait and present it to the scrutiny committee. Waiting may be better because we could get more signatures on our petition – there is definite strength in numbers!

A note of caution

This fight still has a long way to run and whether we win or not remains to be seen. However of this I am sure, it is worth all the time, effort and lobbying if only to ensure that all concerns will be fully considered and the proposals will not as the officers had wished, be pushed through hastily.

I recently met with one of the managers of the Pontprennau branch of B & Q , to discuss the plans for modifying the store, and to consider the best way to address the likelihood of any noise pollution whilst the required work is carried out.

The meeting was very constructive and focused on the company's wish to work with the local community, and to ensure that the process was of as little inconvenience to residents as possible.

There are some major changes to the interior of the store, to make it among other things more family friendly. You may have noticed already that the café has been moved to a brighter and more accessible position. The external timber section is also to be revamped, with new racking and a better layout.

The work has already started with little or no neighbourhood disturbance so far. There will however be some noise whilst the external work is carried out, but I am assured that every effort will be made to keep noise levels to an absolute minimum.

The whole project is expected to be completed by the end of May. During that time there will be a period of four to five weeks when there will be the possibility of external noise from the timber section. Internal work will be taking place around the clock, but we have agreed that external work will be limited to the hours between 7:00am and 9:00pm and will definitely not happen at weekends. I hope this is a fair balance between management's desire to progress the work and the residents right to peace and quiet.

after lengthy discussions I am convinced that there will be no serious problems, and that the work will be well managed, and dealt with in a considerate way. However, if you live close to the Pontprennau retail Park and are disturbed by noise at any time, especially outside of the allowed work periods you can contact the Duty Manager of the day on 2073 0401, or if you prefer, please contact me on 2077 7784 and I will resolve the problem.