Plans to replace a free hospital park and ride with a data centre have been criticised. <\/p>\n
A proposal has been submitted to Cardiff council to replace the Cardiff East Park and Ride in Llanrumney with the centre, which would support services including artificial intelligence and cloud computing. <\/p>\n
Tenants’ union Acorn has called for the plans to be thrown out, saying it would create “complete chaos” for people trying to get to hospital. <\/p>\n
Curtis Hall Limited, which submitted the plans, said it was committed to working “constructively” with the city council and Cardiff and Vale health board to deliver a “long-term solution”.<\/p>\n
The health board currently provides a free park and ride service for about 1,000 cars from Cardiff East to University Hospital of Wales for staff, patients and visitors. <\/p>\n
The application to replace it said data centres such as these were “an essential part of the national infrastructure, supporting cloud computing, AI, digital services and secure data storage”.<\/p>\n
Dan Snipe, 29, from Acorn, said the park and ride service was a “lifeline” for people.<\/p>\n
“If it’s taken away, it’s going to be complete chaos for a lot of people’s lives”, he added.<\/p>\n