Co-Co Building - An Embarrassment
As a business owner and consumer in Caerphilly my heart always sinks when I drive along Bartlett Street and stop at the lights at the Irish Tymes Pub and see the disgusting crumbling wreck of the Co-co building straight in front of me.
This has to be the most embarrassing feature of Caerphilly and has been allowed to rot and decay for far too long.
Caerphilly Castle is a major tourist attraction and there has been much investment in the lower half of town over the last 10 years but that whole top section brings the whole area down.
There have been suggestion of redevelopments which we have heard about for over 10 years and perhaps if the credit crunch hadnt happened then things may have changed by now, but regardless this cannot be allowed to continue like this for much longer.
Local businesses are losing trade and are closing or moving location and it seems no one in a position of power has the ability to make anything happen.
There have been rumours that the Council have planned to put a wrap around the building to improve the look but frankly this is like putting lipstick on a pig. The area needs demoliting and rebuilding. Significant inbvestment is needed now throughout the top of town area in particular.
One suggestion would be to demolish and rebuild on the Co-co building site a multi-story car park. This would provide significant additional parking space in an area which doesnt attract people to visit by car, which in turn would lead to more money being spent with these businesses and could create a real buzz around the town.
This would solve two major problems in one, as parking in the town continues to be terrible.
In this scenario the whole of Cardiff Road from the Co-co building to the cenotaph could be completely pedestrianised, with shoppers encouraged to come to the town, with ample parking and have a shopping experience that would attract more businesses to open up in the town.
Anyway, thats my two-pence worth. What do you think?