Don’t expect much from the petition for saving the historic Vulcan pub in what was Newtown, in Cardiff.
The distinctive-looking building standing on one of the main roads into the city centre from the west is due to be demolished for a car park and associated developments….
A campaign to save the premises near the main city fire station has visited each of the party conferences and drawn much comment.
But will the petition now being considered by the Assembly’s petitions committee achieve much ?
The pub has long lost all the housing which once surrounded it. Without punters, what long-term hope is there for the business ?
In addition, planning matters at this level are decided by the city council. Attempts to find out from the council what their opinions are ran into trouble. The committee clerk intimated that the committee might be straying beyond its brief.
Even worse, the Labour chairman of the committee, Val Lloyd, Labour member for Swansea East, seemed strongly to believe that a “letter” to the council was far more in order than that officials of the council to attend the committee to talk to its members (and vice-versa) about its planning permission which would allow demolition and replacement by something which would be instantly immemorable.
Of course, the rights of local authorities should be preserved. But any organisation must understand that its rights do not exist in a vacuum. Other bodies have views. And they have to be reconciled, rather than ignored.
We have next door in Bristol more than a couple of examples of city council incompetence over redevelopments.
The problem here is simply that a developer has obtained what he conceived as a rectangular block of virgin (actually, extremely brown) land. To incorporate the pub would demand a massive redesign, which might be beyond the professional capabilities of his retained architect.
Perhaps more to the point, it might cost far more than the managing director of the company, Marcol Asset Management, wants to pay. Marcol are a massive international company, so they don’t lack of few pence (or zlotys, or any other currency).
You can be sure at this moment they regard what is happening in Cardiff as a mere local difficulty. Perhaps what is needed is a little less protesting and a little more constructive thinking about how this pub can be integrated into the re-development that will certainly happen.
