Campaigners oppose secretive application to extend arms factory

Martin Shipton

Campaigners have spoken out against a secretive planning application to extend an arms factory in Wales.

BAE Systems has applied for planning permission for the construction of 18 new buildings and a 30 space car park at its existing Glascoed munitions factory between Usk and Pontypool.

An unspecified number of ancillary structures are also proposed.

The firm supplies weapons to the UK’s Ministry of Defence, including bombs for use by Ukraine, and others. Pro Palestine protestors have also staged demonstrations at the site due to arms sales to Israel though the company has said it operates under tight regulations and complies with defence export controls, that are subject to ongoing assessments.

Due to security concerns no details have been published with the application on Monmouthshire County Council’s dedicated planning website.

The only document published on the website explains full details can only be viewed by appointment, at County Hall in Usk, and none of the information can be retained or shared elsewhere.

The statement reads: “Due to the sensitive nature of the site, full details of the application can only be viewed by appointment only at County Hall. Please note that none of the information can be copied/retained/published.

“For information, this application is related to the construction of 18 buildings, a 30 space car park and ancillary structures.”

Adam Johannes, of Cardiff Stop The War Coalition, said: “In 2024, Welsh peace campaigners, including members of Cardiff Stop the War Coalition, Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, blockaded the entrance to BAE Systems Glascoed factory. The action paused arms production and highlighted the company’s role as a major supplier to Israel.

“But there’s a bigger question we should not lose sight of. It is not only where these weapons end up, but why an advanced society uses so much of its knowledge, engineering capacity and public resources to produce them in the first place.

“What might Glascoed produce if its engineering knowledge and productive capacity were redirected towards socially useful production? What could our engineers design if they were asked to address housing, transport, healthcare, child poverty and renewable energy?

“We would like the Welsh Government to establish a Welsh Defence Diversification Agency to explore how Welsh arms factories could be progressively converted to socially useful production.

“The aim would be to reduce the Welsh economy’s dependence on arms production by showing how the skills, workers, technology, factories and supply chains of the defence industry could be redeployed to manufacturing goods and services that benefit our society.

“The Agency could bring together arms workers and their trade unions together with universities, communities and government to identify alternative products and develop practical plans for diversification by asking what we could make if social need, rather than military demand, determined our priorities.

“BAE is a private company, but its business depends heavily on government contracts and public expenditure. Yet the public is being asked to comment on a substantial expansion while being denied access to the detailed plans on security grounds. Citizens are permitted to participate in the planning process while being denied the information necessary to make an informed judgement. Public money remains central while public accountability is remarkably limited.

‘Secrecy’

“Security, we are told, prevents disclosure. This is familiar language in the arms industry. Secrecy is not an occasional inconvenience, it is part of the system. Governments invoke national security, companies invoke commercial confidentiality, and decisions are made behind closed doors.

“Arms are produced with enormous amounts of public money, often by companies whose contracts depend upon government decisions, and may ultimately be used in wars thousands of miles away. Yet the public is expected to pay for them, accept the priorities created by military spending and, ultimately, live with the consequences.

“This is why opposition to arms industry secrecy is not simply an argument for greater transparency. It is an argument about democracy.

“Who decides what is produced? Who decides where it is exported? Who decides what information remains secret? And, ultimately, who decides what kind of society public money is used to build?

“On September 3, the public consultation on the Glascoed development closes. That same day, the Welsh Government will be promoting closer links between government and the arms industry at an arms fair at the ICC Newport. We will be there making a different argument that Wales should move beyond the war economy.”

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