Very exciting news!

Cardiff community saves our land!

We are beyond excited to tell you that following our public campaign in October to save a site at Railway Street for community use, Cardiff Council has now announced its intention to lease the land to Green City to develop a creative community hub and green space for the people of Adamsdown and Splott!

The site, a former public park and more recently a works yard for Carillion, runs between Railway Street and the train tracks, just a short walk from Splott Road and Clifton Street. Once the site opens it will offer affordable work spaces for local businesses, a hub for community events and celebrations, food growing and a wild play area, and a variety of other facilities and services that will be chosen and designed in partnership with local people. Suggestions offered so far include bike repair facilities, a tool library, a chicken coop, bee hives, and a community fridge. 

Green City Events have been working to secure the land on Railway street - empty since the completion of the electrification work by Network Rail earlier this year - for local people since 2015. A community consultation held at the start of 2018 showed enormous support for the project but in October Green City Events was informed that the land would not be made available for the community due to its potential development value.

However, following an online petition signed by over 3,000 local people, and supported by local councillors and the Community Land Advisory Service Cymru, Cardiff Council have now decided to lease the land to Green City Events to develop a creative community hub and greenspace for the people of Adamsdown and Splott.

Green City aims to create a safe place in the heart of Splott and Adamsdown for the community to come together and grow more resilient by sharing skills, creating connections, producing food, and building shared community assets. Shipping container business spaces will help develop the local economy and bring new people into the area, while the green living aspects of the site will support well-being and combat isolation and loneliness.

Rebecca Clark and Hannah Garcia, directors of Green City, are also Railway Street residents and have experienced first hand the need for this project in the area. Hannah said, “What a perfect early Christmas present! We’re so excited to begin planning this project with the community and building something really special for Splott and Adamsdown.”

Rebecca said, “We are very grateful to councillors Jane Henshaw, Ed Stubbs, Owen Jones and Russell Goodway, as well as council leader Huw Thomas, for their support and actions to help take this project forward. We are especially grateful to the many residents of Cardiff who have offered their time and support to this campaign.”

Green City Events and Cardiff Council will now work together in order to agree a lease and progress with planning permission. With both parties keen to get the project off the ground, the aim is to complete these agreements in early 2019 and start work on the land later in the year.

Community support

Green City events are now calling out to Cardiff locals to help get this project off the ground and share their skills. Are you a solicitor, architect, landscaper, electrician, plumber, builder or maybe you have experience in security systems or running kickstarter campaigns? If you think you might have some useful skills to offer, resources or connections that could benefit the project at these initial stages then get in touch with [email protected].