Cardiff Council’s “Economy & Culture scrutiny committee” this week released a report digging into Cardiff’s night time economy, putting forward some recommendations that will go to the council’s executive meeting later this year. – Calls for a clear strategy and management of the night time economy – Better enforcement of licensing and other rules in the city centre by officers – Business signing up to a ‘standard’ for customer services – Investment in opening up the city centre at night [...]

Has Cardiff become a great city, or great big mall? Thousands of houses and apartments have been built in what are now trendy areas of Cardiff, the Bay, the city centre and Roath, but why is there a demand for apartments in Cardiff? Has the population of Cardiff grown? Are more people naturalising here? According to census figures, no. And if they were, why would they come? Is Cardiff a cultural mecca? No, we have an opera house, some small [...]

A few weeks ago I started a Facebook group to campaign against the Free B bus, a service which runs every 10 minutes in Cardiff to provide a link between bus stops, created after the idea recreating the central bus station was scrapped. With the city centre only being probably just over a mile in diameter, this means the bus is most often completely empty. Also, with city traffic and the route the bus takes it is often quicker to [...]

In what has become a very bad few weeks for Cardiff Council, a magistrates court has ruled that their “saturation zone” policy is unenforceable and has granted Tesco Express, which opened in November 2009, a license to sell alcohol. This is a victory for common sense in so much as there are currently three outlets already selling beers, wines and spirits within 100 meters of the store that Cardiff Council declined to issue a license to. The off-licenses that are [...]