Here is our latest update, covering: the return of the Cardiff Food and Drink Festival; top UK accolade for our hi-tech homes for the future scheme; and another park re-opens after major improvement works.

Cardiff Food and Drink Festival returns to Roald Dahl Plass

Cardiff Food and Drink Festival - one of the most popular free events in the summer calendar - returns in July for the first time since the pandemic.

In a sign that the city continues its return to normal after the enforced hiatus, the festival is back at its regular venue in Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay from Friday, July 1 to Sunday, July 3 with a host of regular stallholders and plenty of new ones, all offering a spectacular range of local produce and delicacies from around the world.

"The Food and Drink Festival is always something to look forward to and has been since it started more than 20 years ago," said the council's Cabinet Member for Culture, Parks and Events, Cllr Jennifer Burke-Davies.

"We have a host of amazing events planned for the summer which all bring a smile to people's faces. But this is also a key part of Cardiff's economy and we're expecting thousands of people to come along over the course of the three days and enjoy what's on offer."

Among the 100-plus stalls at this year's event are some mainstays, such as SamosaCo, with its onion bhaji scotch eggs, Gwynt y Ddraig Cider, from Llantwit Fardre, and The Mighty Softshell Crab, plus newcomers including Old Bakery Gin, one of a number of gin specialists attending, the Pembrokeshire Chilli Farm and award-winning Southern Indian-inspired street food from Keralan Karavan.

While there will be plenty of stalls selling ready-to-eat food, much of the emphasis of this year's festival will be the chance to buy produce and ingredients to take away, like spices and marinades, and create your own delicacies from the latest culinary trends.

There will also be a full programme of music throughout each of the three days of the festival.

The Cardiff Food and Drink Festival will be open on Friday, July 1 (noon-10pm), Saturday, July 2 (11am-10pm) and Sunday, July 3 (11am-7pm). For more details, click onwww.visitcardiff.com

Hi-tech homes for the future scheme bags top UK accolade

A highly-innovative Cardiff housing development that is creating tomorrow's homes today has scooped a prestigious national award for its sustainability, climate resilience and low carbon footprint.

At the annual RESI Residential Property awards at Grosvenor House, London, Cardiff Council and its Cardiff Living scheme development partner, Wates Residential were awarded the top spot in the Climate Crisis Initiative - Residential category.

Aspen Grove in Rumney is a ground-breaking scheme currently being developed on the former site of Eastern High school that has been awarded £4.1m of Welsh Government Innovative Housing Programme (IHP) funding.

The Council and Wates Residential are working with Cardiff-based sustainable energy services company, Sero, to incorporate low carbon technologies into the development and Monmouthshire Building Society who are providing a ‘green mortgage' product for home buyers.

A total of 214 homes - a mix of private sale properties and affordable homes to rent from the council are on their way to the east of the city, as part of the overall Cardiff Living programme to build 1,500 new homes.

The site is the first within our programme to target a Net Zero Carbon Ready Standard at scale and plays a significant part in the Council's One Planet Cardiff strategy to be a carbon neutral city by 2030, its Fuel Poverty strategy and Wates' ongoing approach to low carbon/energy development.

The site will include 65 new council homes, 44 of which will be Community Living apartments for older people while 149 properties will be for sale on the open market. Both council and sale housing will be built to the same energy performance standards focused on a fabric first approach and incorporating ground source heat pumps, thermal storage, PV panels, battery storage electric vehicle charging points and Intelligent Energy System controls.

And with the current energy price hikes, the introduction of this new technology will help reduce the impact of the energy market on households by enabling them to be less reliant on the national grid.

Read more here:

https://www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk/releases/c25/29094.html

Maindy (Gelligaer Street) Park re-opens following major improvement works

Residents of Cathays in Cardiff have been able to enjoy a new look local park this weekend as Maindy (Gelligaer Street) Park re-opened to the public following major improvement works.

Designed following consultation with residents, the works are part of an ongoing citywide programme of park and play area refurbishments being carried across the city, and include:

• The installation of a new play area, including new play equipment and the refurbishment and relocation of existing equipment.
• A separate natural play area.
• New paths.
• New table tennis and teqball tables. Teqball is a ball sport played on a curved table, combining elements of football and table tennis.
• Picnic tables, some combined with board games.
• New seating and re-positioned bins.
• New trees, shrubs, and meadow grass areas.

A council spokesperson, said: "Creating safe spaces for play is a really important part of our work to make Cardiff a Child Friendly City but this has been a transformation that we hope will benefit the whole community, providing a space that everyone can enjoy."