The US military and MOD are trying to build a gigantic 27 dish radar array over the skyline of the Dewisland (St Davids) peninsula in Pembrokeshire, in full view of a coastal National Park famed for its beauty, and a jewel in the crown of Welsh (and UK) tourism.
But the fightback from locals in the last few months has been monumental.
From a launch that saw maybe the biggest public meeting in a generation, to a 16,000 signature petition (so far!), BBC Wales coverage, massive protests and the support of the main opposition party in the Senedd, PARC (Pembrokeshire Against the Radar) Against DARC (the appropriately named radar project) has gone from strength to strength, inspiring massive support amongst locals who want to defend the landscape of West Pembrokeshire for generations to come.
But in PARC, we’re seeking to live up to our name as a Pembrokeshire-wide movement, just as we did in 1990, when we successfully stopped the radar proposal of a generation on St Davids Airfield.
And to get there, it’s going to take an idea so big that no Pembrokeshire campaign we’ve ever heard of has tried to pull off anything quite like it.
Our plan is to reach 40,000 Pembrokeshire residents three times with mail-delivered flyers. With what we have and your help in raising just £2,500, we can do it.
But we want to go one epic step further.
If you help us reach £5,000, we can flyer an additional 40,000 people we otherwise wouldn’t have, leading to a colossal 80,000-strong audience reached by our so far highly successful flyers—that’s almost the entire population of the Parliamentary constituency of Mid and South Pembrokeshire!
The campaign is in so many ways a test of the limits of what modern campaigning can do: can we take it as far as humanly possible, reach every supporter, and create an avalanche of opposition to DARC so great that political decision-makers and planners will have no choice left but to acknowledge the unique power of determined local campaigns, think about their positions, and give the people what they demand?
There is just one sensationally ambitious way to find out what we can do with democracy in 2025.
Donate, and let’s reach a massive 80,000 people in Pembrokeshire.
Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for every person who donates, has donated and will donate. It is all made possible with the power of a people who love their land.
VIsit www.parcagainstdarc.com for all the ways you can get involved!