SO the debate on Barry Island continues with great gusto and some kind of vision. There are many comments regarding The Collins report etc, countless hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been spent on consultants fees and still all we have is a very expensive car park/useless events area governed by strict licensing laws laid down by the Vale licensing committee.

The Caravan Club of Great Britain offered to take over the remainder of the Butlins site and wanted to sympathetically landscape the area and turn it into an up market touring caravan park with additional log cabins. This would have been professionally managed and would have given the area a much needed boost of tourist numbers with the provision of regular accommodation.

Our erstwhile council said this was not a viable option despite it being favoured in the Collins report as being the least risky operation. The scheme was backed and favoured by Barry Town Council, Cardiff Wales Airport, Cardiff Bus and Arriva Trains Wales. I have copy of a letter which was sent to the council’s major projects manager Mr John Dent in 2010 from the estates manager of the Caravan Club with the said offer, which to my knowledge he has done nothing about for over four years.

I also have copies of letters from all the supportive bodies listed above. All these letters were on the council’s website which was where I found them. They have since vanished from the website.

I mentioned all of this to the cabinet member for regeneration, innovation and transportation, Cllr Lis Burnett. She said she was not in the cabinet at the time of the offer and further retorted that if the Caravan Club wanted to take the site on all they had to do was contact the council with a further offer which would be considered. This comes from a woman claiming that the council have explored many possibilities for the site. Let’s be brutally honest here, surely she should be contacting the Caravan Club and marketing the site to them not the other way about. Marketing means contacting possible clients and making the offer of sound business opportunities rather than waiting for people to contact the council. If anyone wants to see copies of these letters please email me with your email address at barrie.v.evans@btinternet.com

Barrie V Evans

Coordinator

Barry First Group

Friar’s Road

Barry Island