Anti space radar campaigners in Pembrokeshire have been demanding answers from the Military of Defence on key safety questions surrounding plans to redevelop Cawdor Barracks to host a landmark radar initiative - with DARC public consultation meetings labelled as ‘utter shambles’.

Protests were held outside each of the MOD’s Public engagements events in Solva and St Davids on September 13/14, with the PARC Against DARC campaign group mobilising a large crowd of opponents against the 27 dish Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability proposals.

A large number of anti-DARC locals attended the PR meetings inside and asked questions.

One PARC campaigner said: “Person after person came out from these so called public engagement meetings stating that they were being told completely different things by different ‘experts’ and that when pushed on any of the serious questions, they were answered with ‘we can’t answer that’ or ‘we don’t know yet’ - over and over again.

“Others repeated the mantra that DARC was still at the ‘conception phase’ - leaving us thinking it was strange they could have so much confidence in a proposal they seemed to know very little about at all!”

“One local resident asked a question about what the MOD could possibly do about the visual impact of 27 radars on the landscape that would be unavoidable, and was given answers that ranged from ‘nothing’, to ‘maybe something’ - to a man who confidently said they'd be growing enormous hedges in an area famous for its lack of anything growing beyond 3 ft in the harsh salt wind!”

PARC Against DARC said they asked a series of technical questions on safety and other issues, stating that they received no responses of any meaningful value or reassurance.

“The event was quite visibly a shambles, and it was very apparent this firm were conducting a PR exercise and not the public engagement they were statutorily obliged to carry out,” continued the PARC spokesperson.

“We asked several other key and extremely important questions, as did so many who attended the events.

“We couldn't find anyone who had come out satisfied with the answers they’d received.

“Many people came out baffled, feeling the consultation was rushed, poorly-informed and confusing. They told us they'd heard contradiction after contradiction.

“The temperature of opposition you could see in the room, suggests that these problems are going to do very little indeed to dissuade what seems like extraordinarily intense opposition from the local public,” they added.