Campaigners put pressure on Cardiff Council not to sell bay park to Military Medicine Museum

Community, environmental and pacifist campaigners have joined together to call on Cardiff Council not to sell a park in Cardiff bay to the developers of a Military Medicine Museum.

They said that the council appears “hell-bent” on selling the park despite “almost universal opposition” to the plans.

Nation.Cymru recently revealed that Cardiff was the fifth choice for the museum and only considered after an invitation by the council.

In a bid to persuade the Council to change its mind, the campaigners have organised an online letter for supporters to send to council leader Huw Thomas, Russell Goodway the member for development, and Peter Bradbury, the member responsible for parks.

Over 400 such letters have reached their inboxes and this comes in the wake of a previous petition that gathered over 5000 names, and the intention campaigners said was to continue to apply such pressure until the Council relent.

Local groups Butetown Matters and the Privilege Cafe are joined in their opposition by the Reclaim Cardiff network, as well as environmental groups Cardiff Friends of the Earth, Cardiff Greenpeace and Cardiff New Green Deal.

Pacifist groups the Peace Pledge Union and Cymdeithas y Cymod have also lent their support.

“A Military Medicine Museum is not what the community wants or needs, particularly with a loss of green space,” said Nirushan Sudarsan of Butetown Matters.

“We want the Butetown community to have an active role in the decision making.”

‘Roughshod’

The local groups said they were particularly frustrated at the lack of recognition or apparent concern for the wishes of the community.

There was opposition not just to the fact that the museum will take away the open green space and a children’s park, but also because it is representative of what they said was the generally high-handed and autocratic approach of council leaders.

A spokesperson for Reclaim Cardiff said that the “disastrous plans” were “unfortunately typical of Cardiff Council’s current leadership”.

“Huw Thomas and Russell Goodway are riding roughshod over the wishes of Cardiff’s citizens, inviting a building described by a leading architect as ‘an extremely deflating prospect’ and a business plan which been described as ‘wild’ and not ‘based in reality’ by a heritage expert.

“Their credibility is in tatters and they need to reassure their electorate that they will not sell the park.”

Rhun Dafydd, Chair of Cymdeithas y Cymod said that he condemned the proposed military museum that would “promote and glorify war and violence”.

“We as a peace society are again calling on the Council to reconsider its intention of destroying another area of greenery in Cardiff,” he said.