Cardiff Bay Barrage - Opposition

Opposition

The barrage scheme was opposed by not only by environmentalists but, according to a BBC investigation, by the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Treasury officials had queried the economic case for the development and the economic methodology used to justify it. In 1990 a select committee, which had been unable to examine all economic details it wanted, voted three to one in favour of the scheme. Subsequently BBC Wales discovered that Margaret Thatcher wanted to scrap the barrage proposal and only recanted when Nicholas Edwards threatened to resign.

Opposition to the project also came from many other quarters. One of the most prominent critics was the then Cardiff West MP, Rhodri Morgan (Labour), who was later to become First Minister of the Welsh Assembly. Morgan - like Mrs Thatcher - said the scheme would cost too much money. It was reported by the Daily Mirror in March 2000 that the costs of the barrage construction alone had risen to £400 million and there would be additional £12 million a year charge for maintenance and operation. Morgan said "This is far higher than was ever identified to Parliament during the passage of the Barrage Bill."

In the meantime local residents living near the edge of the Bay and the banks of River Taff feared that their homes would be damaged by the permanently raised water level as they had been in several previous floods. Environmental groups strongly opposed construction because the bay was an important feeding ground for birds, which would be lost following impoundment. Concerns were also raised over groundwater levels in low-lying areas of Cardiff possibly affecting cellars and underground electrical junctions.

During the development of Cardiff Bay and of the Cardiff Bay Barrage there was constant tension between the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation and Cardiff City Council (later Cardiff County Council). The National Assembly's Audit Committee spoke of a "fractured working relationship" between the two bodies. After the original impoundment of the waters of Cardiff Bay in November 1999 plans were mooted for an Royal inauguration of the barrage. This, it was envisaged, would be held on St David's Day 2000 to be attended by the Queen and the First Minister of Wales Rhodri Morgan - a vociferous opponent of the scheme. In the event no such event took place. On 1 March 2000, the day pencilled-in for the ceremony, the National Assembly of Wales announced that there would be no special ceremony held to mark the project.

In place of an official Royal inauguration of this massive civil engineering scheme, the largest of its kind in Europe, a modest ceremony was arranged by Cardiff Bay Development Corporation at which a former Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Councillor Ricky Ormonde (who had served as Lord Mayor in 1994) officiated along with Alun Michael Labour and Co-operative MP for Cardiff South and Penarth who had always supported the scheme. However as Cardiff Council would not accommodate the installation of a commemorative plaque on their land, the ceremony had to be performed, and the plaque unveiled, on land owned by the adjacent local authority, the Vale of Glamorgan Council at the Penarth end of the barrage. This was also the site chosen for the installation of a 7-foot tall bronze figure of a mermaid - which was the logo of Cardiff Bay Development Corporation. (The logo had been designed by Cardiff graphics artist Roger Fickling).

The Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was wound up on March 31, 2000 - handing over control of the completed project to Cardiff Council. Soon afterwards the plaque at the Penarth end of the barrage was removed and an entirely new plaque erected mid-way along the barrage. The new plaque made no mention of Cardiff Bay Development Authority. The bronze figure of the CBDC symbol of the mermaid, however, remained on the roundabout at the entrance to the Penarth end of the barrage.