Goodway’s flawed plans to demolish and rebuild County Hall - and manage the decline of City Hall

Clock tower, Cardiff City Hall

A quarter of a century after refusing to release City Hall for the use of the National Assembly, Councillor Russell Goodway,  Cabinet Member for Investment & Development, has finally admitted what was obvious to everyone at the time: Cardiff doesn’t need two HQ buildings.

A new report from Cardiff Council admits it was an expensive mistake as the council now must shoulder the costs of maintaining both County Hall in Cardiff Bay and City Hall in the city centre.

What is Goodway’s answer?  To build his way out of trouble.  He has persuaded Cardiff Council’s cabinet that the only way to get out of this mess is to demolish County Hall in Cardiff and build a new council HQ.

Across Cardiff, residents are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, and increased mortgage payments.  The council itself pleads poverty when various projects cannot be funded.  So, is this really the time for Cardiff Council to use scarce funds to build a new HQ?

One option would be for the council to build itself a smaller HQ and sell or lease the existing building.  However, Cardiff Council knows that there is not currently a demand for extra office space – despite its plans to add 6,000 spaces at Hendre Lakes (a plan currently called-in by Welsh Government).  Another would be to stay put in this perfectly serviceable building.

 Cllr Goodway’s plans for the Grade 1 listed City Hall are also totally lacklustre.  In an official report in his name, he says the vision for one of Cardiff’s most significant buildings is to “to provide the minimum investment required to ensure the building remains safe and protected”, that is - the bare minimum to keep the building standing.  

A press release issued by the council has a different spin, stating:

“Proposals under consideration could see City Hall benefit from a multi-million-pound investment to address ongoing maintenance requirements to secure the heritage venue for future generations.”  

However, closer scrutiny shows that the only real plan is to turn the current stately corridors and internal courtyards into office space.   

City Hall is portrayed in terms of being little more than a liability sitting on the council’s books.  Exemplifying this is the sentence: “The Council, as owner, is legally obliged to protect City Hall as a heritage asset and therefore will be required to meet its maintenance backlog….”

However, given the council’s failure to enforce planning obligations on the historic Coal Exchange, there is scant hope that City Hall will be given the treatment it deserves as a ‘heritage asset’.

County Hall is a relatively new building, and we are far from convinced by Goodway’s insistence that knocking it down will save more carbon than repurposing it.  

Managing the decline of one of the city’s most loved buildings; and releasing embedded carbon by destroying a perfectly good existing HQ, does not feature in the governing party’s manifesto.  Yet the council seems content to push this through.

More puzzling still, the leader of the Conservatives in the council, Adrian Robson, also supports these plans – as quoted in the South Wales Echo. An alliance between Labour and Conservative to squander public money and disregard one of Cardiff most distinguished heritage assets. 

Not a vision for the future that inspires hope.