A ST ATHAN resident is calling on the Welsh Government to halt plans to demolish a former RAF complex containing a gymnasium, swimming pool, medical centre and cinema, which he says could become valuable community assets when new housing is built in the area.
The buildings, situated at the former RAF St Athan east camp, were constructed in 1939 and include the first heated swimming pool in Wales, along with a large gymnasium that has a full-size indoor running track plus other sporting facilities.
The site passed from military to civilian control in 2019 when it became the responsibility of the Welsh Government.
The complex also contains the Astra cinema, which once had a capacity of 900, though it had been reduced to 500 in later years, and it was open to all military and civilian personnel who worked on the base. The cinema remained open until the end of March this year when its lease ran out.
No date has yet been confirmed for demolition work to commence, but with the town’s population set to increase substantially in the years ahead, local resident Tim Brown has called upon the Welsh Government to preserve the facilities: “A friend who has access to the whole building recently took me on a tour around it, I expected to see dire neglect and a sad state of repair, but what greeted me was quite a pleasant shock, it’s absolutely pristine, well maintained and appears to be structurally sound – just as I remember it when I used to go there as a lad growing up in St Athan.
“The Welsh Government seem to be short-sighted and determined to flatten the whole of the east camp for commercial re-development.
“Quite frankly, to my mind, the current plan is unnecessary wasteful destruction and there needs to be urgent intervention,” he said.
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Mr Brown added that the buildings would provide much-needed facilities for the town’s expanding population: “When thousands of new people come to live in an area, there needs to be facilities for them to use, and right here you have a gymnasium in great condition, a swimming pool that could be brought back into use relatively easily, and a cinema that the whole community could enjoy.
“Historically, the problem has been that the RAF camp has felt rather cut off from the town, so local people didn’t really know much about it or just how good these facilities are.
“Importantly, there’s a building on the site that’s comparatively new and was used as a medical facility, and that could be gifted to the NHS. With thousands of newcomers to the area, there’s going to be increased demand for medical care.”
Mr Brown expressed his frustration at the responses he received following his campaign of letter writing. He said: “I’ve written to Wales’s new First Minister Vaughan Gething, I’ve also written to Alun Cairns, Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies, who is one of the people that represents the area in the Welsh Parliament, and I’ve contacted various other people as well.
“I always seem to get a standard reply along the same lines. The Welsh Government appears determined to flatten the site, which to me is madness.
“Yes, the buildings are mostly more than 80 years old but they’re in excellent condition and could be brought back into use relatively easily and quickly to meet the medical and recreational needs of the town’s growing population.”
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