Verbal update by Richard Dommett (MBACT)
Minutes:
This presentation was made by R Dommett of MBACT
The HLF Waterworks project at Ty Coch at Llantarnam had been completed in September 2017. This project had over 270 volunteers working on it during its restoration. Many of the volunteers had secured accredited NVQ qualification. The total cost of the restoration had amounted to £1,400,000 but this included volunteer time of £325,000.
The Ty Coch Waterway Park Feasibility study is currently in progress and will be going out for community consultation later this month. Suggestions for the site included a farmers market, restaurant, pond and marina, wild life reserve and visitor centre to include reconstruction of a 200 year old saw pit which had been uncovered during the HLF Waterworks project.
Members were also reminded of the positive points of using the new modular lock gates developed with the support of Swansea University. The gates were constructed of steel instead of timber giving them an extended life of over 100 years, as opposed to 25 years for timber ones. The gates were also far easier to install as they could be constructed on site and fitted without the need for a gantry.
Volunteers are also currently engaged clearing vegetation at Pensarn bridge, Allt-yr-yn nature reserve and clearing brick work at Allt-yr-yn bridge.
W Mitchell introduced the final slide in relation to Crindau. He reminded everyone of the precarious position thatredevelopment of the Crindau area around a canal marina had been placed due to the protective designation having been removed from the LDP, primarily because of the lack of flood defence. The flood defence was now in place and he was concerned that this would encourage piecemeal applications for inappropriate uses such as warehousing which would hamper a comprehensive quality redevelopment scheme and destroy the setting of any marina.
He had had sight of the recently published consultation draft Newport ‘City Centre Masterplan’ and was disappointed that the area marked the ‘Northern Gateway’ stopped north of the old Sainsbury site when it could well have been extended to the M4 to include a Crindau Regeneration area. The area has enormous potential as it has excellent communications being a few minutes from the M4 and within walking distance of the rail and bus stations and also the city centre shopping area.
In his view several things needed to happen urgently:
1. The Council should ask it’s officers to revive plans for the redevelopment of the Crindau area and include the proposal in the LDP and Supplementary Planning Guidance as soon as possible.
2. That officer time and resources need to be allocated to developing and promoting the scheme, in a similar way that the City Centre retails scheme was managed. A private/public partnership needs to be established.
3. Newport City officers need to meet with officers at the Welsh Government to secure their help and support. Following a report by Newport Taskforce headed by Simon Gibson set up in 2013, the Welsh Government commissioned consultants to investigate the Crindau redevelopment vision. This they did this and produced a report which confirmed previous studies that the project has huge potential.
4. An alternative and complementary mooring facility to Crindau, which can be developed easier and quicker is a marina basin at Bettws Lane. This can provide much needed mooring space in the short term and function as a partner basin with Crindau in future. Newport City Council commissioned consulting engineers Atkins to draw up such a scheme in 2006, but it has never been progressed.