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The Update: 11 October 2024
Here is your Friday update, covering:
- Our modular homes creating "a safe and supportive environment"
- The Shared Prosperity Fund delivers significant benefits to communities across Cardiff
- Cardiff Council faces budget challenges amid rising costs and demand
- Experience being ‘Under Neon Loneliness' during Cardiff Music City Festival
Our modular homes creating "a safe and supportive environment"
Cardiff families going through the stressful experience of being homeless have described how the Council's new modular housing scheme in Grangetown is providing a safe and supportive environment in their time of need.
The innovative development, Ffordd-y-Rhaffau, on the former gasworks site on Ferry Road is providing temporary accommodation to 154 families while the council works with them to find a more permanent housing solution.
Built offsite using modern methods of construction (MMC) and lowered onto their final position on-site with all the groundworks completed by national developer, Wates Group, the last few units on the development of highly energy-efficient, one to four bedroom properties have been handed over to the Council this week.
Very shortly, new families will be moving to the new homes on the site, which also boasts a community centre where a range of council and partner support services and activities are delivered for residents.
Current resident, Sophie, a mum of two young children, has been living at Ffordd-Y-Rhaffau for a couple of months. She said: "The accommodation is lovely. We were in a hotel before and it was quite stressful cramped in one room.
"But here it's lovely, you have your own independence but if you do need help, the staff are here to help all the time.
"It's a nice community here. There's always loads going on. The community centre is great for the kids, it's a nice environment.
"This is just temporary, but it feels like home for now. It's not forever but it's nice to be here for now."
The Shared Prosperity Fund delivers significant benefits to communities across Cardiff
Over 100 organisations in Cardiff have been benefited from the Shared Prosperity Fund in Cardiff. The scheme, funded by the UK Government was put in place in April 2022 as replacement funding to the European Structural and Investment Programme after the UK left the European Union.
The South-East Wales region was then allocated funding in December 2022, with two years of funding set for 2023/24 and 2024/25. The council's involved then set the necessary governance arrangements to administer the scheme.
In Cardiff, the criteria for the fund were set up in line with Cardiff's Stronger, Fairer, Greener Strategy, with eight separate grant schemes set up. The largest pot of money was allocated to an ‘open call ‘scheme with £5m available, giving community groups, businesses, enterprises and partnerships across the city the opportunity to bid for grant funding. A report to Cardiff Council's Cabinet on October 17th gives a snapshot of the progress made since the scheme started.
Leader of Cardiff Council, Cllr Huw Thomas said: "The successful projects that have received funding so far will make a positive impact on Cardiff's local economy, provide training and support for young people, and improve community wellbeing in parts of the city. We know that a lot more is due to be delivered this year from schemes that have been successful in their funding bids for the current financial year. What has been important with this scheme is getting money out into our communities as soon as we have been able to do so.
"We still don't know what the funding arrangements are for next year - or indeed if there are any - but this funding is critical to maintain some of the work undertaken by the Council and third sector organisations, so it is vital for the people and businesses in Cardiff.
"It is important that Cardiff and the wider region receives a fair settlement of whatever a successor scheme is going forwards, to compensate for the loss of funding from the European Union, and its important there is local determination in how that funding is spent."
Cardiff Council Faces Budget Challenges Amid Rising Costs and Demand
Cardiff Council is facing significant budget challenges just four months into the 2024/25 financial year. The latest budget monitoring report reveals a projected net annual overspend of £8.865 million as of the end of July 2024. This overspend is driven by a combination of rising costs, increased demand for services, and budget constraints.
The Council's Cabinet will be asked to consider measures to address these financial pressures at their meeting on Thursday, October 17. The report highlights the difficulties the Council is facing, including income shortfalls, unbudgeted holding costs, and pressures within various service areas.
Key points from the report include:
Economic Development
A projected overspend of £1.65 million due to income shortfalls for City Hall Functions and Catering, unbudgeted holding costs at St David's Hall, and pressures within Property Services and Major Projects.
Education
A projected overspend of £4 million primarily driven by demand and price pressures within Home to School Transport and additional costs for ALN placements.
Children's Services
A projected overspend of £5 million primarily due to external placements and escalating costs within CHAD packages.
Despite these challenges, the Council is committed to taking measures to reduce overspends and improve the overall financial position. Mitigating actions are being put in place, including the use of contingencies and earmarked reserves. The Council is also exploring opportunities to deliver in-year efficiencies and controlled spending measures to mitigate the bottom-line position.
Experience being ‘Under Neon Loneliness' during Cardiff Music City Festival
Standing tall in the heart of Cardiff city centre is a mysterious black shipping container. The only sign of what's inside, the glowing words ‘Under Neon Loneliness.'
For many, those three words conjure up memories of Manic Street Preachers iconic 1992 hit, ‘Motorcycle Emptiness,' others may know them as the title of a Patrick Jones poem, but for Mark James, the artist behind the installation, which appeared overnight as part of Cardiff Music City Festival - a new three week music festival supported by Welsh Government and Cardiff Council which aims to push the boundaries of music innovation, performance and tech which runs until October 20th - they also transport him all the way to Japan.
"When you're travelling with work," something Mark has done frequently over a career that has seen him design over 100 record sleeves and work with artists such as Queen, Maximo Park, DJ Shadow, Karl Hyde and Amy Winehouse, as well as being a long-time collaborator with Gruff Rhys and Super Furry Animals, "there's a point where you go and you've had some food, and you've got two or three hours to kill before you go to bed, and you just end up wandering around on your own."
"I was in Tokyo earlier this year and it just causes that feeling of being Under Neon Loneliness. You've got these really tall skyscrapers and the neon signs go all the way up the side. Each one is a different bar, a restaurant, a shop - you can have fourteen floors of different things going on."
With a looped soundtrack of field recordings made in Tokyo and mixed by Cian Ciaran (Super Furry Animals, Das Koolies), clever use of mirrors, and eighteen uniquely created neon signs advertising made-up bars, restaurants and clubs, Under Neon Loneliness creates what Mark describes as "the feeling of stepping into another world, but it's a foreign world and it's almost overwhelming - the same feeling I think the Manics were getting at in the song - and you look up and it's almost infinite and you just go, oh my god!"
Under Neon Loneliness, which is part-funded by FOR Cardiff, will be on display in Cardiff's Central Square, until the end of Cardiff Music City Festival. The festival, which will see the barrier breaking Ms. Lauryn Hill and The Fugees perform this week has already featured pioneering electronic artists Leftfield and Orbital, jazz poet and saxophonist Alabaster DePlume, as well as Welsh hip-hop talents Mace the Great and Sage Todz and local drum and bass legend High Contrast. The new festival also sees three long-established events in Cardiff and Wales' cultural calendar - The Welsh Music Prize, Llais and Sŵn Festival - become vital parts of the bigger, ambitious celebrations under the Cardiff Music City Festival banner this year.
