Assembly spends a whopping £240k on a new restaurant... and it’s only for AMs

Oct 30 2007 by Phillip Nifield, South Wales Echo

TAXPAYERS have forked out a whopping £240,000 on a new restaurant at the National Assembly – which will be closed to the public.

The Assembly defended the bill, saying no dining facilities had previously been available to host larger formal dinners at Crickhowell House in Cardiff Bay.

But Plaid AM Leanne Wood branded the restaurant ‘elitist’.

She said it should not just reserved for AMs and their guests.

A spokeswoman for the Assembly Commission said similar facilities existed in Westminster, the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

She said: “The members’ restaurant was adapted to provide a larger dining area to provide facilities for members and for visiting delegations, functions and events.

“The original members’ tea room was developed in 1999 to provide a bar, drinks and snack facility. Prior to the development of the members’ restaurant we did not have a suitable facility to host larger formal dining functions.

“The facility has been used to host delegations and for a larger formal dinner for 40 guests.”

The development includes a seating area for 40, a finishing kitchen and a hospitality pantry to produce teas, coffees and refreshments for meetings throughout the building.

“The finishing kitchen and hospitality pantry has eased the pressure of catering facilities provided from the main kitchen to focus on staff restaurant services, preparation of buffets and servicing the catering facilities in the Senedd,” said the spokeswoman.

She said the cost included building, mechanical and electrical work and new equipment and installation.

But Ms Wood, who represents South Wales Central, said: “People will be shocked that so much money has been spent on dining facilities for a few, when there is need for investment in our public services.

“This is nothing compared to the enormous waste of money on new restaurant facilities in Westminster. But now the money has been spent, the cost can only be justified if the facilities are more widely available.

“I am writing to the Presiding Officer to ask for the restaurant to be opened up, so that it can be enjoyed by others and not just 60 AMs and their invited guests.

“Restaurants in Westminster are elitist and the preserve of MPs and I think Wales should be doing things differently.

“The institution in Cardiff should be markedly different to that old-fashioned model and more inclusive.

“Spending on this fancy restaurant symbolises the opposite.”

phillip.nifield@mediawales.co.uk