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Labour neglect has led to demise of Roath’s former Gaiety cinema



The go-ahead for the demolition of a hundred-year old cinema in Cardiff is a sad indictment of neglect by the city’s Labour council according to Councillor Rodney Berman, the lead Welsh Liberal Democrat candidate for the wider South Wales Central region at the 2021 Senedd election.
Cardiff’s Labour-run council has recently approved the demolition of the former Gaiety cinema in City Road in the Roath area of the city. The cinema was opened in 1912 and the building has also served as both a bingo hall and a bowling alley.
Councillor Berman said: “The Gaiety has been left repeatedly to rot since the Roath area elected Labour councillors in 2012, and the city’s Labour-run council has repeatedly failed to step in to address this over the last eight years.
“This once fine building is part of Roath’s heritage, but that heritage has sadly been squandered by the current Labour-run council. Labour councillors have sat back whilst the building has been left to steadily deteriorate into an eye sore.
“I am deeply saddened that the council has now given permission for the building to be demolished and replaced with a bland, modern development of nearly 1,000 new student rooms. Parts of Cardiff have become over saturated with student accommodation in recent years and it is hard to see that this replacement development will be sustainable within the Roath community.”
ENDS
Notes: Councillor Rodney Berman is the Welsh Liberal Democrats’ lead candidate for South Wales Central for the next election to the Senedd set to be held in May 2021. He is currently a Welsh Liberal Democrat councillor for Cardiff’s Penylan ward and was previously the leader of Cardiff Council from 2004 until 2012.

The go-ahead for the demolition of a hundred-year old cinema in Cardiff is a sad indictment of neglect by the city’s Labour council according to Councillor Rodney Berman, the lead Welsh Liberal Democrat candidate for the wider South Wales Central region at the 2021 Senedd election.

Cardiff’s Labour-run council has recently approved the demolition of the former Gaiety cinema in City Road in the Roath area of the city. The cinema was opened in 1912 and the building has also served as both a bingo hall and a bowling alley.

Councillor Berman said: “The Gaiety has been left repeatedly to rot since the Roath area elected Labour councillors in 2012, and the city’s Labour-run council has repeatedly failed to step in to address this over the last eight years.

“This once fine building is part of Roath’s heritage, but that heritage has sadly been squandered by the current Labour-run council. Labour councillors have sat back whilst the building has been left to steadily deteriorate into an eye sore.

“I am deeply saddened that the council has now given permission for the building to be demolished and replaced with a bland, modern development of nearly 1,000 new student rooms. Parts of Cardiff have become over saturated with student accommodation in recent years and it is hard to see that this replacement development will be sustainable within the Roath community.”

ENDS

Notes: Councillor Rodney Berman is the Welsh Liberal Democrats’ lead candidate for South Wales Central for the next election to the Senedd set to be held in May 2021. He is currently a Welsh Liberal Democrat councillor for Cardiff’s Penylan ward and was previously the leader of Cardiff Council from 2004 until 2012.

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