DARC Matters – 1

Campaigning message from PARC Against DARC

The planning application for a highly controversial space radar station in the heart of west Pembrokeshire is widely expected to be submitted this year.

If it is – and if planning permission is granted by the county council – it is reckoned that work on the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) at the disused airfield at Brawdy could begin before the end of 2026.

But PARC Against DARC, the organisation opposing the development is determined that that will not happen.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Roy Jones said: “The Ministry of Defence is conducting an environmental impact assessment [a precursor to submission of a planning application] due to be completed by January 2025.”

An MoD spokesperson confirmed: “The environmental impact assessment, which underpins the planning application, is currently underway. When all requirements of the application have been met, a submission will be made to Pembrokeshire County Council for their consideration.”

But pressed on a timescale for the completion of the assessment and the submission of an application, they added: “We have a working schedule but no set dates. Neither are expected imminently.”

PARC Against DARC’s attack on “the catastrophe it would be for Pembrokeshire’s environment, landscape, jobs and tourism – not to mention Wales’s part in the facilitation of an increasingly aggressive US military space domain policy” led to thousands of people signing a petition last year to stop the project.

“When a planning application is submitted, there will have to be an official public consultation,” said Jones. “There were some public consultation events before [in Solva and St Davids] but they were not official statutory ones – I think they were a response to our petition.

“We organised protests outside these events, putting our side of the story.”

Jones said the previous consultations were arranged by a company employed by the MoD: “But there were military personnel in the room. And anyone asking serious questions did not get satisfactory answers – there was a lot of contradiction in the responses.

“We got coverage on BBC Wales then. And we went to Plaid Cymru’s annual conference and an emergency motion in our favour was passed unanimously.”

Coming up to date and facing the prospect of a planning battle in the near future, Jones said: “We have a research team and we’re getting ready for the consultation which will have a 28-day limit.” There are also plans to lobby all members of the Senedd as well as MPs.

PARC Against DARC has raised multiple issues around the proposed development, which is part of US-led plans to develop a global network of sensors, with similar stations in Australia and the States. Not least among these is the expected construction of an access road passing by Newgale and the almost inevitable need for some sort of substantial upgrade to local power supply. And some of those opposing the plans see a military space monitoring station as a provocation to Russia and China and thus a potential target.

On top of all this, Roy Jones pointed out that there are six cromlechs (megalithic constructions) near the site in question.”It’s an almost sacred area,” he said.