Anti-DARC placards. Photo: By Penny Dafforn.
Welsh Quakers await space radar decision
The Ministry of Defence is seeking permission to install twenty-seven radar antennae and a lengthy list of associated works at Cawdor Barracks in Brawdy.
Pembrokeshire Quakers are waiting to hear whether a controversial space radar project is to go ahead.
The Ministry of Defence is seeking permission to install twenty-seven radar antennae and a lengthy list of associated works at Cawdor Barracks in Brawdy.
The fate of the programme is now to be determined by the Welsh government rather than local planners. If given the green light, the installation would form part of a worldwide network of sensors known as the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC), designed to track active satellites and other objects in orbit.
Originally planned to be debated by Pembrokeshire County Council planning committee on 28 July, the application was moved to the recently-formed Plaid Cymru government after a formal request from the campaign group PARC Against DARC.
Quaker Jane Harries, a member of Cymdeithas y Cymod (Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales) and CND Cymru – both anti-DARC campaigners – said: ‘The fact that Wales’ Plaid-led Welsh Government has decided to “call in” the DARC project is being seen as a huge victory for the PARC Against DARC campaign, including huge local opposition in Pembrokeshire… This is uncharted territory, but campaigners are cautiously optimistic.’
Another of the campaigners described the change as ‘an earth-shattering achievement, and a historically significant moment’ adding: ‘But it is a victory by every one of the overwhelming majority of people in the St Davids peninsula who have stood up, lobbied the decision-makers, and made our voices heard.’
Jane Harries also told the Friend that Milford Haven Meeting sent ‘a very strongly worded minute’ to South Wales Area Meeting (SWAM), which was discussed and discerned in May. SWAM clerks then wrote a minute to Pembrokeshire County Council Planning Committee. The statement argued that the installation will ‘lead to further upgrades changing the overall purpose from a surveillance system into an attack capability, through the ability to combine the radar data with missile target systems’. It also claimed that it could lead to an arms race, as ‘other countries will feel they have little choice but to install their own similar system’.
The decision on the space radar has now been called in by Siân Gwenllian, Plaid Cymru’s minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning. The minister said: ‘The proposed development raises national security issues given the strategic defence nature of the proposal and is a novel planning issue.’ The installation also ‘potentially conflicts with national policy in relation to landscape, ecology, sustainability and placemaking’.
But a supporting statement for the DARC project argued that installation is ‘critical to protect and defend the services provided by satellites, ensuring continuity and resilience against collisions or debris-related incidents’.
It added: ‘Without DARC, the UK faces a significant risk of losing access to these vital services, which would have severe consequences for national security, economic stability, and public safety.’
Jill Evans, a prominent peace campaigner and former member of the European Parliament, said: ‘Hopefully the planning authority… will conduct a thorough investigation before advising the minister, and consider all negative impacts. There’s some way to go yet, but there’s huge opposition locally. It’s time to celebrate this step forward although it’s important to keep up the campaigning.’
