An introduction from Principality Building Society

Principality Building Society collaborated with Tirion Homes and Welsh Government, along with developers Lovell and Cadwyn to bring sought after affordable housing to the west of Cardiff that we now call The Mill. Principality share the same values as Tirion, Lovell and Cadwyn, with a purpose of helping people prosper in their homes.

Principality Building Society is a Welsh Mutual Building Society that has been committed to High streets across Wales and the borders for over 150 Years, helping Members with their savings, mortgages and insurance needs.

Our local Canton Branch has been part of the community for over 40 years helping existing and new Members with their savings, mortgage and insurance needs as well as participating in local community initiatives. “It’s really important to me and my team here at the Principality Canton branch to provide support and guidance to our local Members, we would like to welcome the new residents of The Mill development to the area and invite them to come and speak to us anytime if they would like to know more about our Principality products or just to come in and say hello” Andrew Gay, Branch Manager at Principality Canton branch.

By becoming a Principality Member you can sign up to our Member Rewards benefits, it’s our way of saying thank you. You could enjoy exclusive benefits including priority ticket access to selected events at the Principality Stadium (like the 6 nations championship), 15% discount at the WRU online shop, exclusive competitions and automatic entry into all of our unmissable prize draws. T&Cs Apply.

For more information on our savings and mortgage products or Member Rewards T&Cs please visit www.principality.co.uk or call into your local Canton branch today

All change! Partnership delivers major changing room revamp for Cardiff rugby club

A Cardiff rugby club has unveiled a major revamp of its Jubilee Park junior section changing room facilities carried out by city housing developer Lovell.

 

Canton Rugby Football Club officials joined Cardiff councillors and representatives from Lovell at an opening ceremony to celebrate the completion of the extensive renovation programme which has created a brand-new base for the club’s mini and youth teams.

 

The improvements have totally transformed the building, including installation of a new kitchen, shower room and boilers as well as new lighting and a new roof. In addition, the Lovell team  created a new kit room, replaced all ceilings, refurbished toilet facilities and redecorated the interior in the club colours of yellow, burgundy and black.

 

All work was carried out for free by Lovell, who also donated the materials used, with the company’s total contribution in the region of £20,000. The company carried out the project with the generous support of a large team of its subcontractor partners while hard-working volunteers from the club painted the exterior of the building.

 

The refurbishment has enabled the club to complete its much-needed upgrading programme for the Jubilee Park facilities. The programme won backing from Cardiff Council, who agreed a community asset transfer of the Jubilee Park base into community ownership, with the club also securing funding from builders merchants Jewsons towards the refurbishment work.

 

The Lovell team – who are working very nearby in Canton delivering award-winning new housing development The Mill in partnership with Tirion Homes and Cadwyn Housing Association – helped the club complete the transformation through the company’s community legacy programme.

 

Club vice-chair Ivor Rodway, who has led the club’s drive to transform the Jubilee Park facilities, is delighted with the new-look changing rooms:  “On behalf of everyone at Canton RFC and especially the mini and youth sections, I would like to thank everyone at Lovell, Jewsons, the subcontractors and Cardiff Council for their help, it will make such a difference to all the youngsters who will be using the refurbished facilities.”

 

The previously dilapidated Jubilee Park building, which had no hot water and a leaking roof, now houses smart, modern dressing rooms and other facilities for the club’s young players.

 

Lovell regional managing director Kate Rees says: “This has been an inspiring project to work on and it’s great to see it come to fruition. From our involvement in Canton, where we began work at The Mill, it was clear that the rugby club is pivotal to the local community and particularly the area’s young people, giving them the chance to play regular sport, improve their fitness and get the fantastic life experience that comes from playing in a team.

 

“When we found out how the Jubilee Park building refurbishment would benefit the club’s youth teams and enable the club to secure its future, we felt it would be the ideal legacy project for us to create in Canton. The new facilities are amazing; we hope the boys and girls enjoy using them and wish them every success in future matches.”

 

David Ward, chief executive of Tirion Homes, says: “We are delighted to help facilitate this improvement to facilities for the wider community.  We are committed to maximising local benefits in our developments wherever possible through social and economic projects. The new facilities will ensure that rugby will continue to play an important part in the lives of many people of all ages in Canton.”

 

Chris O’Meara, chief executive of Cadwyn Housing Association, says: “It’s great that local residents get better recreation facilities as a result of the investment at The Mill. Doing something for the whole community will help those living there become part of it.”

 

One of Wales’ largest regeneration programmes, The Mill is being delivered by a partnership of Lovell, Tirion Homes and Cadwyn Housing Association. The riverside site was acquired and remediated by Tirion with support from the Welsh Government and financial backing from the Principality Building Society. Overall, it will create 358 homes for open market sale through Lovell and 442 homes to rent for Tirion which will be managed by Cadwyn.

Autumn Update

It’s been a busy few months at The Mill!

 

In September the first of the homes to rent were completed. We welcomed Rebecca Evans AM to our official handover event to see the new homes and meet residents.  Despite the challenging weather conditions,  it was lovely to welcome lots of guests to hear about the progress of the development so far, and to find out more about the future vision for The Mill. It was also great to walk down the boulevard from the site offices and to see the evolution of the homes along the way – from the foundations, to the finished product.

 

Construction continues at a fast pace and from the time of our last update to the new year, over 100 new homes will have been made at The Mill.

 

But it doesn’t stop there! We’re excited that design meetings for the riverside area are underway. They’re still in the early stages but we will soon be inviting Mill residents to become more involved in the design process.  We’ll post any consultations or events on our Mill Living Facebook pages and residents’ group so be sure to join those, if you’ve not already done so.  The group aims to keep residents in the loop with development progress as well as a place to share useful info about the local community – so if you’ve found a great café, group, activity or service, let your neighbours know about it!

 

With a busy lead-up to Christmas in sales and rentals we’ll be looking to arrange a Meet the Neighbours in the New Year to say hello to everyone and see what’s in store for 2019. Exciting times ahead!

 

See you soon,

 

The Mill Living Team

The Grow Well Project – Community gardening on Sanatorium Road

The Grow Well Project runs from Lansdowne Surgery garden every Wednesday at 12.30pm.

The garden has been running since September 2017 and the Grow Well Project has a focus on engaging with people with health and wellbeing issues and supporting them through their garden work – they have a broad range of volunteers at the moment and encourage anyone that is interested to join them.  The project has been working alongside the primary care staff and GP surgeries in the area to help promote the benefits to health and wellbeing from gardening and working outside in a friendly and welcoming environment.

Grow Well Project Officer, David Kilner says,

“We won a commendation for our showpiece at the RHS show in May after tireless work through snow and rain to get our tulips flowering, mange tout climbing show pieces ready.  Our showpiece was designed, planned and built by our volunteers – a tremendous achievement!”

“The garden goes on and we can often be found handing out the weeks harvest to pupils and parents on a Wednesday from Ysgol Treganna – broad beans, lettuce, rocket, carrots by the bag full.

“Anyone that would like to be involved can just pop in and join us – our doors are always open to new volunteers.  JOIN US!

“You can find us at the Lansdowne Surgery garden drinking tea and looking after our garden from 12.30pm every Wednesday.”

Grow Cardiff is a small Cardiff based charity supporting growing projects across the city.

To get in touch with David, Grow Well’s Project Officer, you can email or call 07555 450 456.

Spring Update

With first handovers fast approaching we have been busy working on putting the systems in place in readiness. Our Lettings agent has started to reserve the first properties which we hope will be handed over on 6 September 2018. We have 101 properties being handed over between September 2018 and May 2019 and the building work is moving really fast. Our Community Engagement work is pressing ahead. We have been meeting with, residents, prospective residents,  local businesses and service providers to find out a bit more about what they do and what opportunities there might be to work more closely with The Mill and its residents. These have been really informative and useful meetings and everyone we have met with has been exceptionally positive about the new community and the opportunities it presents. We have met with; Lansdowne Surgery, Hollies Day Nursery, Lansdowne Primary School, The Boiler House, Keep Wales Tidy, RSPB, and ACE – Action in Caerau & Ely

We have also started to engage is design meetings for the commencement of phase b and the construction of the long awaited Riverside Park, which will complete the Ely Trail.

Exploring The Mill site

We recently visited the Glamorgan Archives to begin to explore the history of the Paper Mill.  It was my first visit to the Archive so it was fascinating to learn more about how it works and to spend some time browsing. The photographs I had opportunity to look through were just the tip of the iceberg – but it was great to be able to see some snapshots of the working paper mill, some dating back to the late 1800s.

We have also spent time at the Dusty Forge on Cowbridge Road West speaking to people who had worked at The Mill and I’ve loved hearing the stories. We’ll continue to reach out to people via drop in sessions like this within the community, and on social media, as the project grows.

As we embark on this project we’re building links with a wide range of people, community groups and organisations with a view to not only curating stories, photographs and other memorabilia from The Mill’s past but to create a legacy at The Mill in recognition of its rich history for present and future generations.

We’ll post details of any upcoming events online but if you’d like to get involved, get in touch!

Talk to us

If you have any stories about the old Ely Paper Mill contact us here

Mark & Kath

Introducing Cadwyn at The Mill

Hi! We’re Mark and Kath from Cadwyn and we’ll be working closely with everyone at The Mill as the community grows.

Mark Howells is our Head of Operations and is doing lots of work with Lovell and Tirion behind the scenes to ensure that everything is in place for the handover of homes starting in the summer.  Between August and April next year, there will be 102 new homes made at The Mill.

Kath Williams is our Community Partnership Lead who will be ensuring that everyone living at The Mill has opportunity to be involved in creating the community they want.

Here are some of the things we’re working on:

  • The Mill Living web and social media which will be your online village noticeboard. We’ll use these to keep everyone living at The Mill up to date with what’s on, when and where, as well as providing really useful community-focused information.
  • Building links with local services, projects and businesses to identify opportunities for working together that will be mutually beneficial and help to build a sustainable, vibrant and innovative community.
  • Getting to know people living at The Mill – what are your aspirations for your community and how would you like to be part of shaping it?
  • Laying the foundations for future projects: The Mill will feature a riverside park and will continue the trail alongside the river Ely, it will also have its own village centre with community facility. We want residents to become actively involved in designing and shaping these features as the development progresses.

We’re really excited to be part of this amazing development, and working with the whole community to unlock its full potential over the next few months and beyond.  Watch this space for more updates on The Mill Living and what else we’re up to.

If you’re interested in renting a home at The Mill visit our dedicated page here

You can also join in the conversation via Facebook, Twitter  and Instagram.

For more information about our community partnerships contact Kath