Locals’ fear after studying college access plan

20 August 2009

A proposed new road is emerging as one of the most contentious aspects of a £12bn Defence Technical College (DTC) in South Wales.

The Metrix consortium won the contract to provide centralised training facilities for the army, navy and RAF at the former RAF St Athan base. Vale of Glamorgan Council is due to consider a planning application from Metrix in the near future.

A northern access road from the B4265 is proposed, but some local residents say it would spoil countryside. One local assembly member claimed a southern access road would shorten travel distances and utilise brownfield land.

Metrix envisages 3,716 trainees and staff living on-site and 1,580 workers commuting to the DTC. A further 1,526 jobs are expected at the adjacent Aerospace Business Park by 2020.

The site is near Vale of Glamorgan railway, reopened to passengers in 2005, but previous suggestions of new stations on that line or on the South Wales main line were not taken up by Metrix.

A transport assessment by consultant Capita Symonds predicts the peak DTC travel time will be Friday afternoons, when trainees going home will coincide with DTC commuters going home. An inbound peak will occur on Sunday afternoons. It concedes that additional vehicles to prevent Friday overcrowding on public transport are unlikely to be cost effective, and proposes using the DTC’s ‘white vehicles’ – non-camouflaged minibuses and coaches – to supplement public buses or to take trainees direct to Cardiff, Barry or Bridgend.

Cars, lorries and ‘site transport’ are predicted to account for 2,342 average weekday departures from the DTC in 2014, compared with 389 rail passengers, 503 bus passengers and 234 car passengers.

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