Westgate: Decay threatens historic Chartist hotel

A historic hotel has been hit by decay and vandalism since volunteers looking after the building were banned from it.

Councillors approved enforcement plans to try protect the Westgate Hotel, which was at the centre of the 1839 Newport Rising.

The last large-scale armed rising in Wales saw soldiers clash with Chartists marching for voting rights.

Volunteers and conservationists began work to preserve the building in 2019 but were ejected from it last Autumn.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting service, Newport council said trespassers and vandals have been damaging the disused, privately-owned property, including setting fires.

Council officers visited the Westgate with the building's owner last week, a planning committee meeting was told.

They found evidence of damage to important features and graffiti covering walls.

Senior planning enforcement officer Neil Gunther described structural disrepair due to gutters being "solid with vegetation", causing "water ingress".

A "substantial collapse" of the ceiling was also found in one part of the hotel.

If plants like buddleia were "allowed to grow" in the stonework it would lead to more damage, Mr Gunther warned.

He said the owner had been asked to carry out urgent repairs to make the building safe and watertight.

The planning committee agreed unanimously that if those works are not carried out, the council should be granted enforcement powers to do the repairs itself, and then recover the costs from the owner.

Committee member John Reynolds called the Westgate a "UK site of significance for our democracy" and said there was "a need to protect it".

His colleague Stephen Cocks said it was a "tragedy" to see the "deterioration" of the historic hotel.

Committee chairman Mark Spencer said it was "important that we look after this building as best we can".

The future of the "water-damaged and deteriorating" Westgate remains unclear.

Mr Gunther told councillors any enforcement action was "not a way of getting the building back into use".

Asked by committee member Ray Mogford whether the owner had signalled any plans for the future of the building, Mr Gunther said the owner "had what looked like a pre-application… for a hotel", but there was also the "potential for flats for the upstairs floors as well".