Welsh Cladiators hope to fill two new seats on Butetown ballot
A CAMPAIGN group is searching for Cardiff Bay cladding victims to stand in the city council elections next year.
The Welsh Cladiators want residents affected by cladding issues to run as independent councillors for the Butetown Ward, which will go from having one councillor to three in the May 2022 vote.
“There’s a lot of people who are just very disappointed with what they see as a very passive response from Cardiff Council to the plight of victims in the Bay,” said Mark Thomas, 63, who is a Celestia Development leaseholder and a member of the Welsh Claditators.
He said: “We have lobbied Cardiff Council hard for sanctions against developers who refuse to remediate their fire defective buildings as well as asking for other support, but the response has been very poor.
“By putting up some councillors who are victims of this crisis we hope we can make a difference.”
Councillor Saeed Ebrahim is currently Butetown’s only councillor. The electoral ward was described as having the greatest voter underrepresentation in Cardiff by the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales.
Coun Ebrahim won the council elections in May 2017, with 1,462 votes and a 56% share of the total votes cast.
“Our thinking is that 1,400 votes is probably just two or three apartment developments in the Bay,” said Mr Thomas.
“It’s still relatively early, but we are going to push hard in the lead up to Christmas to see if we can get at least two home fire safety victims to stand in the council elections.”
A Cardiff council spokesperson said that any problems leaseholders were facing over cladding were a matter for the Welsh Government and the developers and not the responsibility of the council.
Do you know what it’s like lying in your bed at night just not knowing whether you’re safe?
Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, many apartment developments in Cardiff have been found to have unsuitable cladding.
While the Welsh Government are funding recladding on social housing, leaseholders are still facing the cost of replacement themselves, in addition to interim safety costs.
Rebecca Ashwin, 41, is a leaseholder in Victoria Wharf, Cardiff Bay, which was found to have unsuitable cladding. She said that the estimated remediation costs for the site are around £60,000 for each flat.
“I spend hours every day working on this crisis trying to establish facts, understanding fire regulations and building specifications, and campaigning. This should not sit with me to do,” she said.
“There is no way, when signing our leasehold contracts to pay for maintenance, that residents could have imagined this would be held as legally binding to make us accountable for full building remediation.
“I have done everything society told me to do – put effort into my education, worked my entire life, and saved hard – and now I could lose my home due to absolutely no fault of my own.”
Deborah Polverino, 59, is also a leaseholder in Victoria Wharf whose annual service charge rose from £3,000 to £7,800 in the past year to cover the costs of increased insurance, safety fittings, and fire wardens who patrol the site.
She said: “The money is of course a very big issue, but do you know what it’s like lying in your bed at night just not knowing whether you’re safe?
“It’s something that we live with every day and there is a lot of anxiety that goes along with that.”
Ms Polverino is one of many members of the Welsh Cladiators who are hoping that residents in Cardiff Bay affected by the cladding scandal will come forward to represent them in the council elections.
“It just goes on and it goes on and I don’t know how long for,” she said.
“If there were a few more councillors who lived in these properties, then maybe more would be done.”
