More than 100 commuters an hour could travel from Penarth to Cardiff by boat as a Cardiff company takes the first step towards having regular water bus services.

At 25 minutes, the journeys on a fleet of five £90,000 boats, which would run every 15 minutes between around 7am and 7pm and stop at Cardiff Central station and Bute Park, could be quicker than commuting by car.

Yet company owners have criticised the Cardiff Council-controlled Cardiff Harbour Authority, saying the boats could go twice as fast if speed restrictions on the River Taff were lifted.

The traditional day of rest could be a thing of the past for a group of Cardiff residents, following an application by their local supermarket to receive deliveries on Sundays.

Lidl in Maindy Road has applied to Cardiff Council to increase its deliveries from six days a week to seven. This could see articulated lorries turning up to the site, which is on a residential road, from eight in the morning until 10pm.

A CARDIFF shop owner’s new alcohol delivery service has drawn criticism from charities and local residents.
Arjuna Gunesekera, 23, will launch the Bargain Booze delivery service on Friday with the aim of selling alcohol in the city’s Cathays area.
The scheme, which is the first Bargain Booze has ever run, will target central Cardiff’s large student population and deliver cheap alcohol as late as 4am. This has led to criticism from safe drinking campaigners.
Mr Gunesekera owns Bargain Booze in Splott Road, but will move his business to Cathays to target its large …

Cardiff councillors charged the taxpayer over £30 every day in travel expenses during the last financial year.

Forty per cent of the bill came from taxi charges after councillors argued the public transport in the city, including the council-owned Cardiff Bus, was not good enough.

A senior Cardiff councillor spoke in support today of a steep pay cut proposed for Cardiff council’s highest-earning members. Plaid Cymru executive member for transport Delme Bowen said he supported cutting cabinet members’ maximum allowances by 9.1 per cent, as recommended in yesterday’s annual report by the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales.

A decade-old empty building on a housing estate was demolished on the request of Cardiff Council this week, despite protests from its owner and a petition with more than 150 signatures from nearby residents to save it.

Cardiff Council could be in line for a major shake up following draft proposals to redraw ward boundaries, in a move which one councillor labelled “gerrymandering”.

CARDIFF Council’s Labour leader said he will call for a commemoration of former leader of the Labour Party Michael Foot, who died this week.
Councillor Ralph Cook said there was frenetic activity in the Labour office the day Mr Foot died, but he was unsure if there were any plans for a formal tribute as of yet.
“I was fortunate enough to meet Michael Foot quite by accident about ten years ago, just before I became a Councillor.
“It was at Newport Train Station and, even though the person I was with didn’t …

Flow-Dem Crew – It Doesn\’t Matter
Students from a Cardiff school were rewarded for their success in a European video project by a trip to BBC Wales’s studios on Monday February 22.
Pupils from Willows High School in Tremorfa came first in the INDIE Goes Mobile competition held by the British Council to promote awareness of diversity and social cohesion.
They beat students from 47 other schools across the EU to claim the prize of a day being shown round the BBC’s Llandaff North studios and the sets of such shows as Pobol …

It could be described as an own goal by Cardiff Council. Their flagship alley gating scheme, which this year had a £110,000 budget, has been widely praised by residents for its role in cutting crime. But the gates have another use, too – as playthings for youngsters.

Up to 8,000 new jobs for Cardiff could be at risk after inspectors blasted plans for an International Business Park next to the M4.

A Cardiff community centre has received exactly the same grant money for over a decade even though the real value of the sum has decreased dramatically.

The core grant funding from Cardiff City Council for South Riverside community centre has stayed at £28,035 since 2000 when they received additional funding. The sum in 2000 would now be worth more than £7000 more in real value yet the grant has remained the same.

It was all change yet again in Cardiff city centre last week, as the council implemented phase one of its plan to pedestrianise St Mary Street and High Street.
Of course, you could be forgiven for thinking we were well past the early stages of the plan and nearing completion. But the last two and a half years, which have seen partial pedestrianisation and the replacement of gas pipes running under the street, have in fact been nothing but a prelude.

Some lighter goings-on in Cardiff this week.

A meeting between Cardiff Council and residents living above a Cardiff row of shops is being held tomorrow (Tuesday) in attempt to solve the recent security issues in the area.

Residents in poorly-maintained properties in Cathays could be in line for improvements in their living standards.

The council is seeking to introduce additional requirements for landlords who manage houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).

Councillors met with the landlords’ forum this week to present the proposals, which will be debated by the full council shortly.

Cardiff officials have dismissed the case for legalising heroin, made yesterday by the leader of Carmarthenshire council, as both impractical and unrealistic — though a senior council official has advised against hysteria from either side of the debate.

Reacting to the comments, made by Meryl Gravell OBE, leader of Carmarthenshire county council, Cardiff councillor Heather Joyce said she saw no logic behind making hard drugs legal.