Fair boss – ‘Wheel be back again!’

THE owner of Barry Island’s fairground has vowed to get a Ferris wheel back on the site, following a planning permission dispute with the council.

The fate of the popular ride will not be decided until the new year.

But fairground owner Henry Danter says the eye-catching wheel is missed and called it the “icon of Wales”.

“As soon as we’re told we got planning permission will be the day we start building that Ferris wheel back up,” he said.

“The ferris wheel was the most expensive thing we ever brought.”

Mr Danter, who took ownership of the famous seaside fairground in 2015, put up the new big wheel in October, but by the start of November it was being taken down.

A dispute between the fairground owners and the Vale of Glamorgan Council over planning permission means the wheel has now been moved and put up in a London park for a winter festival.

“It is such an icon, such a big thing for Barry,” says Mr Danter.

“The whole of Wales benefits from that big wheel.”

A spokesperson for the council said: “It is currently under delegated authority so it won’t go to planning committee unless it’s called in by one of the members.

“How long it takes for a decision will be determined by the responses from consultees but we would hope to resolve it early in the new year.”

When Mr Danter took over the fairground he promised a £22m redevelopment of the site, with plans to see it become “the best tourist attraction in Wales” within five years.

He insists that all the money that his company makes is being spent in Barry and says before his family took over the site it was an “eyesore”.

“We put the heart back into Barry,” says Mr Danter.

“We have done a lot for Barry, maybe it hasn’t been appreciated.”

Jonathan Bird, Vale of Glamorgan council’s cabinet member for regeneration and planning, said last month: “It is important to stress that despite writing to Mr Danter to advise him of the need for planning permission for the new wheel [which he accepts] along with other outstanding planning issues which remain unresolved, at no point was Mr Danter asked to take down the Ferris wheel, neither was any other enforcement action taken against him in relation to the structure.”

The Ferris wheel is currently in London at Clapham Common’s Winterville Festival.