Cardiff's Growing Pains

I was born and bred in the city. The streets where I grew up have not

changed much. You cannot say that for the beating heart of the

capital. I know not everyone enjoys this and

many people the most city with suspicion. They tell me that almost

daily on my radio show and in a way I can see why, because Cardiff has

benefited from being the capital city. But they are played to the

place, it has taken its chance, reinventing itself against all the

odds. I used to come to go to the mosque. It was docs back then,

derelict and depressed. Industry and the population was shrinking, but

then things began to change. Look at Cardiff now. The city has completely

transformed itself in around 20 years. The jobs are in government,

media, leisure and shopping. It describes itself as Europe's

youngest capital and it has more growing to do. My dad used to be a

bus driver and finished up on this very route taking to this around.

The city's population is predicted to go up by another 80,000 over the

next 20 years, and increase upper quarter. I have enjoyed watching it

grow but I have my concerns. Tonight I'm trying to find out what the

future may hold for my city. Firstly, Peter Finch. He has been

charting the changing city in his books. He remembers the old days

well. They were dark, the buildings were dark, everything was grubby,

street lights were dim, pavements were cracked. By comparison to what

we have now. You felt it was a place of work. It was for people who went

to do dirty work. You did not come to Cardiff because you wanted to

come here, it was a place you pass through. It was wonderful but it was

not as it is now. The ability to go around to different destinations, to

set in a cafe on the street, but now they are everywhere, there are

places to it from one place to the other which makes it into the city

and the destination, and a great place to live. That is why so many

houses are going up around the city. They cannot build them fast enough

as more people are drawn here. People like this couple. They moved

to Cardiff Bay from Swindon when she got a job in insurance. My job

rotters to Cardiff. Once they came here we liked the place and he

studied in Cardiff, so we had an orientation towards Cardiff. You

have not told your wife about your student days? No. We can exploit

that later. From Cardiff Bay be moved here to North Cardiff for a

bigger house. Now we are thinking about starting a family. Since we

like Cardiff with that we would settle here and find a bigger house

and then work on our plans. Cardiff is great. When I was here all I knew

about it was that it was a small city, but now it is growing across.

Even for work, there are quite a lot of companies in Cardiff now compared

to ten years ago. It is these growth pressures and housing shortages that

have meant Cardiff councils had to give planning permission to

thousands of new homes on green fields north, west and east of the

city. There has been a slowing down of house-building and it is

important that we inject some pace and to that, support the Welsh

Government and delivering more housing. The latest figures suggest

that 45,000 homes to be built in the next ten years in Cardiff. Cardiff

is not alone. Big success. His everywhere by getting bigger. -- big

successful cities are getting bigger everywhere. Economists say that our

future is urban. When you get enough people and ideas rubbing up against

each other, more growth happens. Andrew Carter heads up one of the

UK's most influential think tank 's own cities. Because of the

investment that many of our cities are made in terms of making them

nicer places to live and spend time, workers want to live in the areas as

well. Firms want to be there because they gain a lot and workers want to

be there because the workers are there, but increasingly our cities

are nice places to live. Cardiff has done well at attracting business and

people. We have seen tens of thousands of new jobs that some

other cities have done better, creating more highly paid employment

and there are other challenges. Too many schools are underperforming and

nearly a third of households in the city, over 41,000 homes, I deem to

be living in poverty. -- are deemed to be. So the place has work to do

but it has now caught on to something long perceived by one of

its rivals, creating major urban design around major transport hubs.

Large sections of the city centre will be transformed in the coming

years by several major office developments, like this one, Central

square. Paul McCartney is in charge of it, and new generation of

modernising property developers. He's taken me around the new BBC

world headquarters, which he says is key to Cardiff's regeneration. It is

key to this location having the train station here the links Cardiff

with the world. You can have a meeting here in the morning, get the

11 a entry into Manchester in the studio by the afternoon. This has

been a team effort from the beginning, the council have put

their neck on the line to generate projects like this, funders and

brought in hundreds of millions of pounds, and people like us are using

our skills to allow the delivery of public- private sector partnerships.

Some would say property developers in Cardiff have not always

prioritise design quality, but when Paul McCarthy saw these images he

decided Foster and Partners with the only ones for the BBC HQ.

Architecture is very subjective. Some people like a certain building

and some people hate it, that is the nature of architecture. This

building shows a new face to the city for people arriving here for

the first time, author people who come here every day to work and shop

and want to be proud of the city. Cities have become more like

businesses and like many in his world, Paul McCarthy sees them as

competing in a beauty contest for international investment. We need

people like Deutsche Bank who are relocating out of London's to

Birmingham to take Cardiff seriously. But to take Cardiff

seriously the need Cardiff to be on an architectural map and I think

this development will start to do this. Cardiff needs to look good to

attract business? Like you and me, it needs to look good to attract

people. Paul is from Cardiff like me and he is passionate about the

place, but I still have worries. If all the new work is in the centre

and all the new homes in on the outskirts, how will people get

between the two. How will 80,000 extra people get around the city.

And without making the pollution worse. With buses and trains packed

already, the council knows this will put more pressure on the roads. This

route is already the most congested in Wales. The council says traffic

will increase by a third, that means journeys will be extended by about

seven minutes. And on routes like this, you can see how busy it is up

Cathedral Road, the delays could be even worse. Do you think the traffic

is getting worse? No doubt. Especially rush rush-hour, you

always expected the taking your time on this road. -- especially during

rush hour. There is concerned there will be more congestion have to

developments like this. They are building a small town here and over

20 years we will see 7000 homes, schools and leisure facilities. We

are going to create 350 acres of open space and opportunities for

people to live, work and play in this environment. This is a garden

city that is going offered a great lifestyle for a lot of people. They

are contributing ?28 million for transport here and in an agreement

with the council called section one 06. People are walking, cycling and

on buses in the pictures. The developers need to emphasise public

transport is part of their so-called 50-50 vision. To find out what that

means we went to the council HQ when the leader has just taken up the

reins. We have to make sure the investment is there that we are

delivering that. There is a contribution of 20,000,001 place to

put infrastructure in place. We have to look at behaviour change and

changing the way that people travel around the city. We are are

targeting a 50-50 split. It is critical that we invest widely to

Google 's options in front of people and encourage them given the option

is to do that. The council wants to reduce car journeys to half of the

total. I am eating a former planner who thinks that it is unrealistic.

Cardiff has to grow but it has to do that in a more sustainable place

than this, at least initially. This is in the countryside. Transport is

very bad in this area. He studied the plans for elsewhere and thinks

the Cardiff's new housing estates are going to make things worse

before they get better. People do not like travelling by bus, they

will only use public transport that it is better than a private car, it

is reasonably priced and accessible. None of those things apply in this

area. In nearby areas between 75-85% of people coming by car and I expect

the same to happen here because it is a similar area and that is how

people behave. The developers will need to provide cost barking Scott

back parking places -- will need to provide car parking spaces. In

Cardiff there are some sporadic bus lanes that just increase the

congestion because they are not continuous and they cannot be

because of obstacles in place. There is already serious congestion in the

area at times. Most of these cars just have one passenger and there

are not many cyclists or many pedestrians. Some bus lanes have

been built but they disappear at bottlenecks. You can see how much

the flames are needed whenever you get on a bus. I get up at 7am, get

ready, have breakfast and I leave around ten to eight. I catch a bus

from near my house to reach the office every day. This lady is one

of 30,000 people in East Cardiff that does not have access to a

railway station. Many take to the road with predictable results.

Sometimes I get feed, sometimes they don't, it depends how busy it is. So

from here to Newport Road it will be quite busy at this time of the day.

Her bus goes past all the traffic bus lanes, but they often Peter out

when the road narrows. It is ten to nine. I'm going to be late to work

today. Hopefully not. She arrives five minutes late. Today the bus has

taken more than an hour to travel for hours, -- to travel for miles,

and that is the express. My dad used to work in this bus depot. This lady

was the council to invest in more bus lanes. When there are bus lanes

the journeys are quicker, so I think it is useful and it helps to keep

the traffic moving. We have to have bus lanes and change our habits.

Cynthia says that she needs 40% more buses to cope, so will the council

give her the money? I would like more buses and bus lanes, I think

they are effective. In terms of money, I am not going to commit in

any particular scheme but that is desired a recognition that we need

to invest in public transport means or you will be faced with gridlock.

How do you get a bus lane through a place there is small? I'm not going

to comment on any specific examples. Rest assured those rapid transit

corridors have been identified with means to achieving them. The council

says that they will encourage rather than forced to switch to public

transport, but others think the opposite. They think this will to

get people out of their cars and onto trains and buses, will that

work? It will not work under the current plans which seem to be that

they want to make the City Council driving around council such a

horrible experience that people will be forced out of their cars and onto

the buses. There is another way the council thinks that people in

Cardiff could help meet its ambitious transport targets. It once

one in five double journeys to be made by bicycle by 2026. Really? I

am proud to say that I am a cyclist in Cardiff. I cycle regularly from

home to work. I have had some scrapes along the way. The one thing

I have learned is that cycling around Cardiff is not safe or easy.

Where are you going? Regular cyclist said there are too many incidents

like this and the city needs more safe cycle routes to separate them

from motorists. I come with a cycling campaign. Cyclists are

taking their lives into their own hands, being forced to share space

with two tonne metal boxes in an environment that has been designed

around motor traffic rather than human traffic. You tend to limit the

diverse at your people riding bikes. The council has been working with

Danish experts on a plan for a network of cycle lanes and other

improvements. This is similar to what has happened in London. Cycling

groups welcomed the plans in principle but it is also scepticism.

Putting it into practice in implementing those changes will be a

monumental challenge and far above anything that has ever happened in

Cardiff before. I do think the council have been brave enough to

claim priority from motor traffic. Evidence shows it is with segregated

lanes like this, or when you eliminate traffic altogether, that

you really bruised cycling. London spent ?17 a head on cycling

facilities, Cardiff spends ?3. This is our only segregated bus lane, all

80 metres of it. The council says there will be more safe routes and

denies it cycling targets are unrealistic. As the administration

develops we will be looking at what infrastructure interventions we need

to make across the city to enable the transit of people on bikes into

the city centre or across. More walking, more cycling, more buses we

hope. Anything else? The Cardiff Underground. It opened two months

ago. We are proud to announce the Cardiff Underground is officially an

April fool. The man behind the prank and this map agrees that Cardiff

needs a better transport network. It is a fantasy but if it existed it

would be amazing. Cardiff is growing so we need a massive improvement in

infrastructure. And worried about suburban development because they

are expanding quickly and we might have to suck up there we are losing

a little bit of Greenland, but I feel sorry for those people who will

be living in these neighbourhoods without the infrastructure and

public transport to get around Cardiff. Traffic is so bad on the

roads already, what will it be like coming in in ten years? Real key

knitters are well aware of the pressure already on the trains. It

is predicted that will be an extra 7 million journeys a year into Cardiff

by 2026, an increase of 50%. How will the network called? This could

be the answer, the much topped about Metro. Trains are transcoding every

15 minutes all linked up to buses. Supporters say it could be a game

changer, creating more jobs in the ballets in relieving housing

pressure on Cardiff full up new stations could help people get

across the city, east to west. It is happening. Over ?700 million of

investment in the city deal are committed to delivering the Metro.

It will change how people get around Cardiff in South Wales. It is making

growth equitable and making sure that the economic development of

Cardiff drives a quality into the ballets as well. Will it make a

difference in time for all the growth? The first phase should be

completed in six years which should help with congestion coming into

Cardiff from the ballets. But that is now use to commuters in the west

east, the Metro for them is years off and they could be in for a

difficult time. There is a long development process here going back

years and years. I am impatient to get that into process as soon as

possible and do what I can to make it happen. Funding public schemes

and cities today is largely about council is doing deals and making

the most of it. Billions of pounds are changing hands on Cardiff

between landowners and developers. New council is cash-strapped, but as

the planning authority it has power. As it used it well? We are not using

the money on infrastructure first and then building the development at

the words. We could ever have the assembly government to put the money

up for that first and then built. We could have demanded more from the

developers, but the developers need to extract a certain amount of

return from their investment and there comes a point where they say

that they could build another 400 houses here or put money into the

highway and the 400 houses get built of the highway. Did we need more

sharks and deal breakers on the council? It would've been useful if

there was someone in their battling a little bit harder on the side the

people who live here, but that is painting and extreme picture. The

council has been accused of not being up to the job of negotiating

with the private sector to get the best deals. I think it has been a

strong partnership that will deliver for Cardiff. Others say it is time

to give cities more power to finance the growth. When you look its cities

on the continent of Europe or in North America, they are more

empowered, they have more responsibilities, powers and

financial leaders to be able to respond to the pressures that they

have. We need to move towards a system where Cardiff and other UK

cities are more empowered to make the decisions that will benefit

their place and people. Cardiff's spectacular growth as a mark of that

success, but the next few years could be a bumpy ride for its

citizens. The city needs to keep building to provide homes they

growing families can afford. If the place grows too fast without enough

public transport, commuters will suffer even more. The challenge is

to spread the benefits of growth to everyone, people living in the

ballets and in Cardiff's deprived communities, and to make sure its

citizens do not suffer at the cost of more congestion and a reduced

quality of life. If Cardiff does not get that right, people will be at

King who is all this growth actually for? -- people will be a thing who

is all this growth actually for?