Cardiff development: Campaigners in bid to stop 'eyesore' flats

Architects said the flats would "enhance the character" of the area

Campaigners have raised more than £3,000 for proposed legal action against a Cardiff development they've branded an "eyesore".

They want to stop the former vicarage on Cathedral Road, Pontcanna, being demolished and replaced with 33 flats.

One protestor, Ian Staples, said the designs were "not in keeping with the surrounding buildings" of the Victorian conservation site.

Cardiff council said it wouldn't have been approved had it been in breach.

And the architects behind the design said there had been "no stone left unturned" in ensuring it "respected all the policy requirements of the area".

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Mr Staples said the former vicarage and two rear annexes of neighbouring townhouses were "one of the finest examples of Victorian architecture currently existing in Britain" and the new development was "essentially a big red brick block of flats".

He said the design wasn't "in keeping with the surrounding buildings" and the suburban development was "totally unsympathetic with the Victorian heritage of Cardiff."

Hundreds of objections were raised during the planning process.

The buildings had previously been used as offices by the Church in Wales

John Wotton, of John Wotton architects which is working on the project, dismissed the criticism, saying a thorough planning process had been completed.

Mr Wotton said: "There was no stone left unturned, and we arrived at a scheme which respected all the policy requirements of the area.

"Rigorous historical research has been undertaken to establish what the historic precedents are, and then to reinterpret those references into a contemporary style.

"We carried out a series of compromises during the planning process, hence we've arrived at the final scheme, which was approved."

During the planning process, the number of flats was reduced from 56 to 33, as results of the planner's findings.

In response to these changes, Mr Staples said: "They've cut down the number of flats, but the design is still an eyesore.

"It feels as if the planning consolation was just a formality, a box-ticking exercise."

The campaigners are halfway toward raising a £6,000 target they say will potentially allow them to launch a legal bid to challenge the planning decision.

A Cardiff council spokesman said: "If the development was in breach, it obviously would not have passed through the planning process."

One protestor said the former vicarage is 'one of the finest examples of Victorian architecture currently existing in Britain'.