City street closure to continue

St Mary Street has been closed to general traffic since August 2007

The partial closure of one of Cardiff's busiest main streets will continue until 2009.

Council Council's executive accepted the recommendations of a report on the trial closure of St Mary Street which said the restrictions should remain.

The road has been open to buses, taxis, cyclists and emergency vehicles only since last August in a bid to cut pollution and noise.

The plans will be considered again by councillors in September.

Councillors met on Thursday to consider the report prepared by corporate director Tom Morgan.

It had recommended the closure continue pending the demolition of the Terminus building in Wood Street in the summer.

He said: "Full revocation of the scheme is more complicated than simply a return to the pre-August 2007 position.

Pubs and clubs

"Traffic would not necessarily return to using the St Mary/Westgate Street route and works to revoke the scheme would involve re-signalling, junction re-configuration, signing and traffic management."

In December last year, Greyfriars Road was closed to traffic on Friday and Saturday nights amid safety concerns over people spilling out from pubs and clubs.

The closures were a joint operation with South Wales Police and are set to continue until June 2009.

Cardiff council's planning committee has given the go-ahead for a £4.3m new park and ride facility at Llanrumney.

More than 1,000 parking spaces will be available on council-owned land from 2009, off the A48 Pentwyn interchange, with buses every 10 minutes.

Bus lanes will be added to the A48 and Southern Way.