CAMPAIGNERS against a US deep space radar being built in Pembrokeshire celebrated yesterday after the Welsh government agreed to call in the planning decision.

The Pembrokeshire Against Radar Campaign (Parc) said their lobbying work with Plaid Cymru ahead of the Senedd election had paid off, after Planning Minister Sian Gwenllian intervened before Pembrokeshire County Council’s planning committee was due to decide on the scheme next Tuesday.

The campaigners described the move as a “seismic and significant positive step” for the new Plaid Cymru government.

A Parc spokesperson said: “[The Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability] Darc is a proposal for a huge 27-dish radar array overlooking the St Davids Peninsula of the Pembrokeshire Coast national park.

“The National Park Authority has objected to the scheme because of its unacceptable adverse visual impact, the damage it would cause to tourism and the harm it would do to a nationally important landscape.

“Natural Resources Wales agrees with that assessment.

“Sian Gwenllian has made the right decision here, as Darc is far from a typical infrastructure project.

“As we made in our case to Welsh ministers, the Darc proposal is part of a weapons system designed to track and target satellites belonging to other countries around the world.

“That is why Darc has been described as a significant escalation in the militarisation of space.

The Welsh government letter to the council said that the main issues raised in the call-in requests were concerns that the development would result in a military target.

It also said that campaigners had claimed that Pembrokeshire County Council was not suitably equipped to make a planning decision of this nature, and the impact on an “irreplaceable habitat.

“A decision on the proposal may be controversial beyond the immediate locality, and there is already considerable public interest in the proposal,” the letter said.

“All these matters lead the cabinet minister to conclude the development is of more than local importance and the application should be determined by the Welsh ministers.” 

The Welsh government also said that the decision to call in the planning decision was not an indication of the eventual decision.

But as this was a Ministry of Defence application to build the radar installation, it may put further strain on the relationship with Prime Minister Andy Burnham and his new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting.