I'm the area manager for Hafod Housing Association here in St Mellons. The estate (Heol Maes Eirwg estate) was established fifteen years ago as a cooperative of tenants. It's a very transient estate. Lots of people came to the St Mellons area because this is where the land was made available - this is where housing associations and private developers came to build.

St Mellons sprung up between about 1985 and 1990 - that's when the bulk of the housing was built, both private sector and social sector.

The Hafod housing estate was built in 1990. You have to prove a housing need. We tend to house a lot of homeless people, people who's mortgages have failed, people who's parents have asked them to establish their own home now. We do have a high percentage of single parents, but that's not really an issue any longer.

I think people are quite happy to live here. You're actually nearer Newport than you are Cardiff, but people still obviously have that strong affinity to Cardiff, their capital city. The bus route is very well used. It's a very good service, and it enables people to stay in touch with their communities.

It's taken some time to establish the community, and we have lots of different nationalities. We've had over twenty three nationalities, so it's quite a diverse culture really. We have Welsh speaking tenants, Somali tenants, tenants from all over the world. It's quite interesting to watch the different customs and watch the children in their national dress - I find that quite fascinating.

Lots of the Cardiff people here now tend to go back to their original communities. If you're from Ely you want to stay in Ely, and if you're from Llanrumney you want to stay in Llanrumney, and there's nothing wrong with that. But at least we're now beginning to establish a community that I call St Mellons proper now. Their children are going to the schools and they're making new friends, and I think that's encouraging.