The streets where i grew up havent changed much. You cant say that for the Beating Heart of the capital. Now i know not everyone enjoys hearing a cardiff accent, like, and many people around wales view my city with suspicion. They tell me that almost daily on my radio show. And, in a way, i can see why, because, lets face it, cardiff has benefited just from being our capital city. But fair play to the place, its taken its chance, reinventing itself against all the odds. I used to come to butetown to go to the mosque. It was the docks back then derelict and depressed. Old, heavy industries were shrinking, as was cardiffs population. But then things began to change. Just look at cardiff now. This city has completely transformed itself in around 20 yea rs. The jobs are in government, theyre in media, in leisure and also in shopping. It describes itself as europes youngest capital and its got even more growing to do. My dad used to be a bus driver and finished up on this very route, taking tourists around. The citys population is predicted to go up by another 80,000 over the next 20 years, an increase of a quarter. Ive really enjoyed watching it grow, but ive got my concerns too. Tonight im trying to find out what the future may hold for my city. First up, peter finch. Hes been charting the changing city in his real cardiff books. He remembers the old days well. Well, they were dark. The buildings were dark. Everything was grubby. Street lights were dim, pavements were cracked and narrow, by comparison to what weve got now, and you felt that the place was a place of work, a place for people who went to work. Dirty work. Cardiff wasnt the place that you came to because you wanted to come here, you would pass through it. Of course im going to say it it was wonderful, and it was. But it wasnt the same as it is now. This ability to go around to so many different destinations, this ability to sit in a cafe on the street. You didnt used to be able to do that, but now weve got cafes on the street everywhere. The place is riddled with eateries from one an end to the other, which makes it a tourist city, a destination. It makes it a great place to live. Thats why weve got so many houses going up all around the city. They cannot build them fast enough, as more people are drawn here. People like spoorthi and santosh. Hi,jason nice to meet you the couple first To Cardiff Bay from swindon, when she got a job in insurance. Yeah, myjob brought us the cardiff and once we came here we kind of liked this place and also he studied in cardiff, so he actually had a natural orientation towards cardiff from the beginning. Although you havent told your wife about your student days, no . No, i have not dont talk about that ill have to explore that with him from cardiff bay they then moved here, to pontprennau, in north cardiff, for a bigger house. Now we are thinking to kind of start a family, so we thought since we like cardiff we thought wed just get settled here and find a bigger house and then we can work on our plans. Cardiff is growing. When i was here, all i knew about cardiff was it was a city, but a small town, but now its growing across, with pontprennau coming up. And even work wise there are quite a lot of companies in cardiff now, compared to ten years back. Its 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 housebuilding and its important that we now inject some pace into that, support Welsh Government in delivering more housing. The latest figures suggest there are 16,000 houses to be built in the next ten years in cardiff. Cardiff is not alone. Big, successful cities everywhere are getting bigger. Most economists say our future is urban. Because when you get enough people and ideas rubbing up against each other, more growth happens. Andrew carter heads up one of the uks most influential think tanks on cities. Because of the investment that many of our cities have made in terms of making their places nicer places to live and thus spend time, workers want to live in those areas as well, so theres a double whammy, really. Firms want to be there because they gain a lot and workers want to be there because their firms are there, but our cities are increasingly nice places to live. Cardiffs done well attracting business and people. Weve seen tens of thousands of newjobs, but some rival cities have done better, creating more highly paid employment and there are other challenges. 0n education, too many of its schools are simply underperforming and, when it comes to deprivation, nearly a third of households in this city, thats over 41,000 homes, are deemed to be living in poverty. So the place has work to do, but its now caught on to something long pursued by some of its rivals, creating the latest urban design around major transport hubs. Large sections of the city centre here in red will be transformed in the coming years by several major office developments, like this one, central square. In charge of it is Paul Mccarthy, one of a new generation of modernising Property Developers. Hes taking me around the new bbc worlds headquarters. He says its key to cardiffs regeneration. I think the key to this location is of course having the Train Station here, which links cardiff with the world. Yeah. So for you, for instance, you can have a meeting here in the morning, be on the 11 oclock train to manchester and be in studio by the afternoon. This whole development has been a team effort from the office. A combination of the Council Going out at risk, putting their neck on the line, to generator projects like this, funders bringing hundreds of millions of pounds to the area and People Like Us using our skills to enable the delivery of sometimes Public Private sector partnerships and today this worked well. Some would say Property Developers in cardiff havent always prioritised design quality, but when Paul Mccarthy saw these images he decided Foster And Partners were the only ones for his bbc hq. Architecture, dont get me wrong, is very subjective. Some people love a certain building and some people hate it. Thats the nature of architecture. But this building, i think, just presents a new face of the city to the people who arrive here for the first time, or for the people who come here every day to work or shop and just want to be proud of the city. Right into this corner where the trees are. 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. What we need now is people like deutsche bank, who are for instance relocating out of london to birmingham, to take cardiff seriously. But to take cardiff seriously, they need cardiff to be on an architectural map, like those cities, and i think this development will begin to do that. So cardiff needs to look good in order to attract the big names and businesses . Like me and you, to attract anything we need to look good at the start paul is a cardiff boy, like me, and is passionate about the place. But ive still got worries. If all the new work is in the centre and all the new homes are on the outskirts, how are people going to get between the two . How are 80,000 extra people going to get around this city, and without making pollution worse . With buses and trains packed already, the council admits all this extra growth will only pile more pressure on the roads. This route from the city centre heading north west is already the most congested in wales. The council says traffic will increase by a third. That means, on average, journeys will be extended by around seven minutes and on routes like this, already congested, you can see how busy it is on cathedral road, the delays could be even worse. Mahmoud, do you think traffic is getting worse . Yeah, no doubt. Especially during rush hour, you always expect to be taking your time on this road. Always bumper to bumper. Theres concerned therell be more congestion still after new developments, like this one. Lead Developers Redrow are building a small town here. Over 20 years well see up to 7,000 homes, schools and leisure facilities. Were going to create 350 acres of open space. Were going to create opportunities for people to live, work and play in their environment. This is a 21st century garden city thats going to offer a great lifestyle for lots of people. Redrow are contributing £28 million for transport here, under an agreement with the Council Called section 106. Their images of plasdwr dont show many cars. Instead people are walking, cycling, on buses and even trams. The council wants developers to emphasise Public Transport as part of its so called 50 50 vision. To find out what that means exactly, we went to the councils hq, where a new leader has just taken up the reins. So we had to get the master planning right, make sure the investment is there and we are delivering that. For example, in plasdwr theres a contribution of £28 million to put the Transport Infrastructure into place. Then we have to look at behaviour change. We have to look at delivering a modal shift in the way people travel around the city. We are targeting a 50 50 split, which means 50 transport by car and 50 by sustainable means, be that walking, cycling and Public Transport. Whats critical is we need to invest wisely to put those options before people and encourage them and give them the options to do that. So the council wants to reduce car journeys to half the total. Im meeting a former planner who thinks that is unrealistic. Cardiffs got to grow, but it should be growing in a more sustainable place than this, at least initially. Because this is way out in the countryside, as you can see. Public tra nsports very poor in this area. He studied the plans for plasdwr and thinks the new Housing Estates are going to make things worse before they get better. People dont like travelling by bus if they dont have to. People will only use Public Transport if it is better than the private car, if it is reasonably priced and if its accessible and none of those things apply in this area. Nearby areas, between 75 and 85 of people commute by car and i expect the same to happen here, because its a similar sort of area. Thats how people behave and developers have got to provide car Parking Spaces in their developments, cause everyones going to have a car. I reckon about 5,000 extra Vehicle Journeys are going to pull up this road from just this site alone. What youve got in cardiff is this rather pathetic number of sporadic bus lanes, which just increase the congestion. Because, you know, they arent continuous bus lanes and they cant be because of physical obstacles, or whatever. There is already serious congestion in the area at times. Most of these cars have just one passenger. There arent many cyclists and even fewer pedestrians. Some bus lanes have been built, but they disappear at bottlenecks. You can see how much bus lanes are needed whenever you get on a bus. I get up around 7am, get ready, have a quick breakfast and i leave at about 7 50am. I work in town, so i catch a bus from a bus stop near my house to reach office every day. Kanwal is one of 35,000 people in east cardiff not served by a railway station. So many take to the road with predictable results. Sometimes i get a seat, sometimes i dont. It depends how busy it is. So from here till about newport road it will be quite busy at this time of the day. Kanwals bus glides past all the traffic in bus lanes, but they often peter out when the road narrows. Well, its ten to 9am. I think im going be late to work today. Hopefully not. Lets see. She arrives five minutes late. Today the number 45 has taken more than one hour to coverfour miles. And thats the express. 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 like that . Im not going to comment on any specific examples. Rest assured those Rapid Transit corridors have been identified with a means to achieving them. The council says that they will encourage rather than force a switch to Public Transport, but others think the opposite. Do you 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 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 wants 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 cyclists say there are too many incidents like this and the city needs more safe cycle routes to separate them from motorists. Im with a cycling campaigner. 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 diversity of 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 there is also scepticism. Putting it into practice and implementing those changes will be a monumental challenge and far above anything that has ever happened in cardiff before. I dont 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. Really boost cycling. London spent £17 a head on cycling facilities, cardiff spends £3. This is our only segregated bike lane all 80 metres of it. The council says there will be more safe routes and denies It Cycling Safe Routes and denies its 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 and across. So more walking, more cycling, more buses we hope. More buses we hope. Anything else . Ah, yes 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. Im worried about suburban development because they are expanding quickly and we might have to suck up. There we are losing a little bit of green land, 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 . Rail commuters 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 cope . This could be the answer the much topped about metro. Trains or trams every 15 minutes all linked up to buses. Supporters say it could be a game changer, creating more jobs in the valleys and 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 and in south wales. It is making growth equitable and making sure that the Economic Development of cardiff drives equality into the valleys 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 valleys to the north. But that is no use to commuters in the west and 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 in cities today is largely about council 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. Has it used it well . We are not using the money on infrastructure first and then building the development after. T 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 not the highway. Did we need more sharks and deal breakers on the council . It wouldve been useful if there was someone in there battling a little bit harder on the side the people who live here, but that is painting and extreme picture. An 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 powers and financial levers 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. Cardiffs spectacular growth as a mark of that success, is 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 to provide homes that 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 cardiffs 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 thinking who is all this growth actually for . Hello there. Well, today is shaping up to a similar story to yesterday. A good deal of fine weather in the offing, and a few scattered showers. That is the story up into the north west across argyll and bute, the showers continuing here, but it is a beautiful day, with blue sky and sunshine across much of north yorkshire. And that really is the story for much of england and wales. As you can see from the satellite picture, this cloud across the south east easing away, sunshine into the afternoon, but the thicker cloud in the north west, strengthening winds driving in some showers across the north of scotland some of these quite heavy, with the odd rumble of thunder. But i expect for the bulk of us it will look somewhat like this. A pleasant feel out there as well, 19 22 degrees, with just a light breeze. Fair weather cloud tending to come and go, but not spoil the story by any means. Further north and west, we will see thicker cloud into Northern England, the isle of man, Northern Ireland. It should stay dry during daylight hours, but the sharp showers, some with rumbles of thunder will continue, and here it will be more disappointing 14, 15 degrees. Now this Weather Front will sink steadily south and east through the night, introducing more cloud and rain into Northern England and north wales. But it will continue to weaken off really considerably, as it pushes into the south east corner. The only real significant rain through this week will be on tuesday from this area of low pressure into Northern Ireland and Northern England, but that does mean for wimbledon there is the risk of of some light patchy rain on monday, Getting Better for tuesday and wednesday. Warming up nicely 24, 25 degrees not out of the question. So on monday a weak Weather Front will sit across the Bristol Channel into the midlands, down to the south east by the afternoon. It will be warm, with 24 degrees behind it, somewhat brighter conditions and a bit fresher. Here is the rain as we move out of monday towards tuesday, potentially turning quite heavy through Northern Ireland and the north of england. It is worth bearing in mind to the south of here we start to really import some pretty warm air, so temperatures could start to peak into the mid 20s on tuesday. A bit fresher to the north of that frontal system, and that will be the story from wednesday onwards. If you are heading to wimbledon, it is worth bearing in mind 25 is 77 fahrenheit. But a good deal of dry weather to close out the week. Take care. This is bbc news. Im ben brown. The headlines at 11. Pressure on the Prime Minister to lift the pay cap for Public Sector workers michael gove says the government should listen to pay Review Bodies recommendations. Council tenants whose services have been disrupted by the Grenfell Tower fire have had their rent suspended. Iraqi forces say theyve taken control of the main base of the so called Islamic State in mosul. Also in the next hour could Battery Powered planes be the future of flying . Well take an exclusive look at an experimental electric plane. And in half an hour dateline discusses the fragile nature of britains new government and the campaign against the Jihadist Group isis
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