Plans to sell-off green space for a Military Medicine Museum nobody wants

March 2022

Cardiff Council is promoting plans to build a military museum on a children’s park in one of the city’s most deprived wards. 

The museum of military medical history is currently located in Aldershot and has lost its funding from the ministry of defence.  As the Guardian reported, people in Cardiff believe that Military museum is being dumped on them. 

Cardiff Council officials persuaded the museum they should re-locate to Britannia Park in Cardiff Bay - a park popular with children and families and the only green space in that part of the Bay.

The proposal is highly controversial and has drawn criticism from local residents and leading Welsh figures.  Their concerns have been ignored and treated with contempt by the ruling group.  

Locating the museum on a children’s park goes against the council’s policies on green space and seriously undermines its aim to be recognised as a child friendly city - particularly as the council has arrogantly refused to consult with local children as to whether they wish to have their park and playground ruined.  Furthermore, there is the impact the closure of the park will have on one of the most ethnically diverse wards in Wales.  Many would like to see the Council focus their attention on re-opening the Butetown History and Arts Centre which closed due to lack of funding.

There are serious concerns about the viability of the proposed museum.  It is feared that it will attract very few visitors and that the council and local tax payers will end up subsidising the museum  in future.