Welsh Journals

4. REDEVELOPMENT IN CARDIFF BAY: STATE INTERVENTION AND THE SECURING OF CONSENT Huw Thomas The actual character of land use change cannot be deduced from global economic forces; rather it depends on previous usage and the local political situation. .The particular outcome of conflicting actors and objectives inevitably reflects the unique history of a city, even while the forces at work may be generally similar from place to place. (Fainstein and Fainstein, 1988, p. 156) INTRODUCTION At a recent conference on urban policy held in Cardiff, a stranger to the city expressed astonishment at the extravagance of Cardiff Bay Development Corporation's (CBDC) proposal to construct an almost ceremonial mall from Cardiff's city centre to the waterfront, demolishing an established industrial area in the process. However, to those who are familiar with the development of Cardiff perhaps the most striking aspect of the proposal is not its scale, or likely effects, for good or ill, but its echoes of other attempts physically to restructure the city in order to create a more 'fitting' built environment for whatever role or status was being claimed for it. In each case, the particular form that the urban development proposals took can be fully understood only if due account is taken of the city and region's politics. In the early twentieth century, for example, the laying out of a civic centre in Cathays Park (the ceremonial aspects of which have parallels in the CBDC plan) was both an expression of the civic pride of the liberal bourgeoisie which had successfully challenged the Bute family's political hegemony in the city, and was also an important element in a political strategy designed to buttress Cardiff's dëmographic significance in Wales with administrative and cultural leadership (Evans, 1984/5). The project was to have its successes (e.g. the achievement of city status in 1905, and securing the National Museum of