The Cardiff Bay barrage has brought “no benefits” to local communities, according to a campaigner.
Gaynor Legall, a former councillor in the city’s Butetown area, said that “very few people” from her community visited the bay as they felt it “wasn’t meant for us”.
Opened to the public in 2001, the barrage transformed an area of tidal mudflats into a 200‑hectare freshwater lake in Cardiff Bay, paving the way for shops, bars and restaurants to open.
Former Cardiff Council leader Huw Thomas said the barrage had “changed the impression of Cardiff on the world stage” but said further redevelopment was needed.
The barrage was first proposed in the 1980s by the then Conservative Welsh secretary Nicholas Edwards, as a way to tackle deprivation in an area affected by the decline of heavy industry.
The structure traps water from the Taff and Ely rivers, without which the bay would be without water for much of the day.