Lloyd George Avenue ( cy, Rhodfa Lloyd George), originally known as Bute Avenue, is an avenue in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Wales. Roughly one mile long, the road links the Inner Harbour of Cardiff Bay to Cardiff city centre and forms part of the

A470 road The A470 (also named the Cardiff to Glan Conwy Trunk Road) is a trunk road in Wales. It is the country's longest road at and links the capital Cardiff on the south coast to Llandudno on the north coast. While previously one had to navigate ...

. It runs parallel to Bute Street and the Butetown Branch Line. Landscaping on the route was completed in 2000, and it was renamed after the Liberal prime minister

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...

. The site of the avenue had been known as Collingdon Road, which was described as a "grimy industrial area of small factories and workshops, employing hundreds of people". The original concept, a scheme by Cardiff Bay Development Corporation (CBDC), envisaged the removal of the railway line along Bute Street to create a continental-style

boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway. Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls. In American usage, boulevards may ...

, initially named Bute Avenue, with a

Light Rapid Transit A medium-capacity system (MCS), also known as light rapid transit or light metro, is a rail transport system with a capacity greater than light rail, but less than typical heavy-rail rapid transit. MCS’s trains are usually 1-4 cars, or 1 lig ...

system, a park and recreational facilities. The

Welsh Office The Welsh Office ( cy, Swyddfa Gymreig) was a department in the Government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Wales. It was established in April 1965 to execute government policy in Wales, and was headed by the Secretary of State f ...

required the CDBC to use the Private Finance Initiative to construct Bute Avenue. Due to high costs, the LRT element of the project was abandoned, but a new road was built as part of a £120 million PFI scheme awarded to a consortium of investors and shareholders named City Link. After the wind-up of the CBDC in March 2000, all property rights and liabilities for the Bute Avenue project transferred to the

Welsh Development Agency Welsh Development Agency (WDA; cy, Awdurdod Datblygu Cymru) was an executive agency (or QUANGO) and later designated an Assembly Sponsored Public Body (ASPB). Established in 1976, it was tasked with rescuing the ailing Welsh economy by encour ...

. In 2011 the Welsh Government revealed that the full cost of the PFI scheme, including its 25-year payback period, would be £188.8 million. This includes the 350 neighbouring homes, some shops, commercial development and a small section of new road surrounding Callaghan Square."Treasury reveals Cardiff's Lloyd George Avenue set to cost taxpayers up to £189m"
'' Western Mail'', 7 September 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-05. Responsibility for ongoing maintenance reverts to

Cardiff Council Cardiff Council, formally the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Cyngor Sir Dinas a Sir Caerdydd) is the governing body for Cardiff, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. The principal area and its council were established ...

in 2025. Although officials from the Welsh Development Agency and the City and County of Cardiff have examined various options for the completion of the original boulevard scheme, as of 2011 no progress has been made.

Notes

External links

Rhodfa Lloyd George (Lloyd George Avenue)

Lloyd George Avenue and Callaghan Square, Cardiff
{{coord, 51.46969, N, 3.16789, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Roads in Cardiff Butetown Transport infrastructure completed in 2000 2000 establishments in Wales David Lloyd George