One of Wales’ Victorian treasures is being demolished to build flats - please help us save it

Anyone remember The Rape Of Britain? It detailed all/most of the buildings "lost" since WW2, and had a foreword by John Betchemin (lost my copy) "a devastating book" he wrote. I am a big fan of modern architecture but "patch and mend" is the best way to cope with our built environment. I've signed the petition, but I must have done so a hundred times since the sixties. So I agree with KK. Bring on the new party asap!

You all need to stop voting in a labour govt!! That would sort a lot of issues like this!!

If, as KK says, CADW have been slow to step in to protect our architectural heritage, then that's a disgrace (and Jonathan Gammond is right about the cultural vandalism perpetrated on Wrecsam over the years by the Council). Having a building listed will do much to prevent this, and no-one has to wait for CADW to do this -- a Community Council has the authority to list any building in its jurisdiction. I've seen it done in one village in Wrexham Maelor, and all Welsh Community Councils should be made aware of their right to do this, if they're not already. There's a permanent war going on between builders and preservationists, and if the WAG and the County Councils can't or won't rein the builders in, the Community Councils can.

Twas ever thus though. I can remember reading, as part of the basic research for my long essay as part of my course at Coleg Harlech in the mid 80s, an article in a very early edition of Archaeologia Cambrensis bemoaning the national approach to the preservation of our built heritage. It seems to be a thing. How many of us are aware of old houses and buildings being allowed to fall into disrepair and ruin by our compatriots who seemingly on the whole prefer to do this, and build in place the most banal of bungaloid monstrosities that in many places seem to defy the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act's clause aimed at preventing ribbon development? How many of our listed buildings are being allowed to fall into ruin as there is no comprehensive legislation enforcing duties of upkeep and maintenance upon the proprietors of historic and listed buildings? Currently a building that has listed status isn't really that well protected, as it relies on inspection by local authority employees who, at best, can only try to persuade owners to look after buildings, and, in extremis, to step in and do necessary works, but what local authority has the resources to do this, when to start off with, they don't even have the resources to inspect in the first place. Cadw is, and always has been an agency far more concerned with the promotion of tourism than it has been an agency charged with the care of our historic built environment. This was as it was conceived right from the beginning. Vast sums are spent on visitor facilities, such as those at Castell Harlech, when a simple shed for the custodian would do, or, if Cadw wished to push the boat out, perhaps a moderately bigger premises accommodating a shop selling postcards and guides, as once was the case when these structures were under the care of the Department of the Environment, and previous to that, the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works. There is nothing of the calibre of the blue guides sold by that organisation being published by Cadw, (though I do have sympathy for an early criticism of Cadw that the blue guides were a bit of overkill when all that was wanted was a simple map with brief details) though there is nothing wrong with also publishing a simpler document. We do need a heritage agency in Cymru that isn't compromised by market considerations, one where historic buildings are seen as an opportunity to create new uses, with a bias towards schemes that will benefit the whole community, such as community halls, or social housing. Too much of our built heritage is being lost. It's time this changed and that we started to truly value that part of our inheritance.