City of Cardiff Council Letting Boards Evidence Report

City of Cardiff Council Letting Boards Evidence Report Submission to the Welsh Planning Minister for a Direction under Regulation 7 of the Town and County Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992 October 2014 Contents 1. Introduction 2. Legislation & policy 3. Area of Proposed Control 4. Policy initiatives to address the impact of high student populations and HMOs 5. Adverse impact of letting boards 6. Action taken to minimise the effects of letting boards 7. Survey and consultation to support this submission 8. Character appraisal and visual amenity assessment 9. Future enforcement strategy 10. Impact of the proposed controls on existing businesses 11. Conclusions Appendices 1. Proposed Direction Area 2. Cathays and Plasnewydd Ward Profiles ‐ 2011 Census 3. (to follow when approved) Cardiff Student Community Action Plan 2014 – 2017 4. City of Cardiff Council Cabinet Reports – Plasnewydd HMO Licensing (July 2014) 5. City of Cardiff Council Executive (March 2012) and Cabinet (March 2014) Reports 6. Public Consultation Report 7. Landlord and Letting Agent Consultation Report 8. Draft Policy Guidance ‐ Consultation Version ‐ July 2014 9. 2010 Letting Board Survey ‐ Cathays 10. 2014 Letting Board Survey – Cathays and Plasnewydd 11. Petition received by the Council – May 2014 12. Policy Guidance ‐ Final Draft Version – Oct 2014 13. OFT Report ‐ Home Buying and Selling Market Study – Feb 2010 14. UK Estate Agents and Solicitors/Conveyancers Survey 2011 ‐ Homesalone Report – April 2011 1.0 Introduction 1.1 The City of Cardiff Council requests that the Welsh Planning Minister grant a Direction under Regulation 7 of the Town and County Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992 that deemed consent for the display of letting boards relating to residential property, which are advertisements within Schedule 3, Part 1, Class 3A of the regulations, should not apply to parts of the Cathays and Plasnewydd wards of Cardiff (the proposed ‘Direction Area’) as identified on the attached plan (Appendix 1). 1.2 The reason for seeking such a Direction is that the number of letting boards displayed has become so excessive that they have a significant adverse impact on the character and appearance of the area and the wellbeing of the resident communities. 2.0 Legislation & Policy 2.1 The display of outdoor advertisements is controlled by the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992. This legislation permits adverts relating to the letting of residential property to be displayed without requiring the Council’s consent, provided they conform with a number of conditions and limitations. Whilst under the normal circumstances the Advertisement Regulations are adequate to keep the impact of outdoor signage within acceptable control, this submission intends to illustrate that the situation in the proposed Direction Area falls well outside of acceptable limits, meaning that special intervention is required. 2.2 Technical Advice Note (TAN) 7 – Outdoor Advertisement Control – November 1996, provides guidance on how applications for advertisements consent are to be assessed and details how requests for special powers are to be made: Para 22. Before a direction is made, the local planning authority will have to show that it would improve visual amenity and that there is no other effective way of controlling the display of that particular Class of advertisement. As part of this process, local planning authorities will be asked to tsubmi a fully reasoned statement showing that the particular deemed consent provisions are environmentally unsatisfactory in the area or place for which the direction is proposed: dealing with the adverse effects on visual amenity; describing the remedial steps already taken to minimise these effects; giving details of prosecutions for any illegal displays; and assessing the likely consequences of making the direction. The comments of organisations and individuals, whose interests would be affected by the making of a direction, should be sought as part of the process of deciding whether a direction is appropriate. 2.3 This submission intends to address these issues in order to describe why a direction is considered appropriate. In considering the impact letting boards have on area, it is important to note that TAN 7 (para 3) only allows their display to be controlled in the interest of ‘amenity’ and/or ‘public safety’. With these in mind, the City of Cardiff Council considers the display of letting boards to adversely impact on both ‘amenity’ and ‘public safety’. 2.4 It should be recognised that both the Regulations and TAN 7 are over 20 and 15 years old respectively and that planning policy and planning considerations have changed substantially over this period. Of particular relevance is the issue of crime prevention, the initiative to create sustainable communities and the importance given to creating a high standard of public realm. 2.5 Linking into the above considerations, it is also recognised that some streets within the submission boundary lie within designated conservation areas. Accordingly, Section 72(1) of the planning (Listed Building and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 provides that where an area is designated as a conservation area ‘special attention shall be paid to the disability of preserving or enhancing the character of appearance of that area’. The Legislation includes the control of outdoor advertisements. 1 2.6 In conclusion, the conditions and limitations that apply to adverts falling within Schedule 3, Part 1, Class 3A of the 1992 Advertisement Regulations effectively mean the overwhelming majority of ‘to‐let’ boards on display benefit from ‘deemed consent’. As such, they do not require any form of advertisement consent from the Local Planning Authority. In the light of this the Council is seeking special powers under Regulation 7 to remove the benefit of ‘demand consent’ provisions for letting boards. In doing this, all letting boards within the defined area would require advertisement consent. Unauthorised boards (those that do not conform to specific guidance) could then be removed effectively through normal enforcement procedures. 3.0 Area of Proposed Control 3.1 The wards of Cathays and Plasnewydd together cover an area of 4.9 sq km, representing 3.4% of the total 145 sq km area within the City of Cardiff Council administrative boundary. Figure 3.1 Cathays and Plasnewydd wards within Cardiff 3.2 Both Cathays and Plasnewydd are characterised by very high rates of private renting, accounting for the tenure of over 60% of all households in 2011 as shown in Table 3.1 below. This is up from 44% in 2001, with the absolute number of households also increasing by over 2,500 (22%) during the same period. Looking back further, private renting was at 31% across the two wards in 1991. Appendix 2 provides ward profiles from key 2011 Census statistics. All households Privately rented properties Exclusively full time student households Number Number % of all Number % of all households households Cathays 6,192 4,261 68.8% 1,841 29.7% Plasnewydd 7,565 4,171 55.1% 827 10.9% Combined 13,757 8,432 61.3% 2,668 19.4% Cardiff 142,557 31,220 21.9% 3,298 2.3% Wales 1,302,676 184,254 14.14% 8,067 0.6% Table 3.1 Household characteristics, 2011 2 3.3 This predominance of private renting can be attributed primarily to the attractiveness of these wards to young people for shared student housing and to professionals living in flats, shared houses or HMOs, due in part to the ease of access to campuses and close proximity to the city centre by public transport, bicycle or on foot. It should be noted that many students stay in Cardiff after graduating and continue to live in the Cathays and Plasnewydd areas, often in shared accommodation. Figure 3.2 provides an indication of the number of subdivided and shared properties within this area. Figure 3.2 HMOs and Flats 3 3.4 As may be expected, other wards surrounding the city centre, for example Gabalfa, Adamsdown, Riverside and Grangetown, also have relatively high ratios of private renting. However, at less than 40% this is at significantly lower rates to that of Cathays and Plasnewydd. This, together with the lower student numbers, means that the population is less transient in these other wards. The associated rental markets are therefore significantly less vigorous, with fewer properties advertised. Further Education in Cardiff 3.5 Over 50% of those resident in these wards in 2011 were full time students (Cathays 74%, Plasnewydd 31%). Similarly, people aged between 22‐30 accounted for over 30% of those resident in these wards in 2011, compared to 17% for Cardiff as a whole and 11% for Wales. Those aged under 30 accounted for 70% of the population of these wards in 2011 (see Appendix 2 for more detail). 3.6 The last 10 to 15 year period has seen an unprecedented expansion in the number of people choosing to study in Cardiff, with Census figures showing that there were 43,027 full time students living in the city in 2011, equating to approximately 12% of the population. This is a significant increase of almost 44% since 2001 (29,786 students). 3.7 Some 30,000 students attend one of the city’s three major universities: Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan University or the University of South Wales. In addition there are a number of successful colleges and further education establishments, notably Cardiff & Vale College and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, which have teaching facilities located close to the city centre. Further education facilities and primary halls of residence (university‐run and private) are shown on Figure 3.3. Figure 3.3 Further education facilities and halls of residence 3.8 The main campus of Cardiff University is located within and adjacent to the Cathays and Plasnewydd wards to the immediate north and east of the city centre, focussed primarily around the Civic Centre, Park Place/Column Road/Newport Road and the University Hospital of Wales at Heath Park.

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