was opened to the public in 2001. Opposition The barrage scheme was opposed by environmentalists and, according to a BBC investigation, by the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Treasury officials had queried the economic case for the development and the economic methodology used to justify it. In 1990, a select committee, which had been unable to examine all economic details it wanted, voted 3–1 in favour of the scheme. Subsequently, BBC Wales discovered that Thatcher wanted to scrap the barrage proposal until Edwards threatened to resign. Opposition to the project also came from many other quarters. One of the most prominent critics was the then Cardiff West Member of Parliament (MP), Rhodri Morgan (Labour), who was later to become First Minister of the Welsh Assembly. Morgan, like Thatcher, said that the scheme would cost too much money. It was reported by the Daily Mirror in March 2000 that the costs of the barrage construction alone had risen to £400 million, and there would be additional £12 million a year charge for maintenance and operation. Morgan said, "This is far higher than was ever identified to Parliament during the passage of the Barrage Bill". In the meantime, local residents living near the edge of the bay and the banks of River Taff feared that their homes would be damaged by the permanently raised water level, as they had been in several previous floods. Environmental groups strongly opposed construction because the bay was an important feeding ground for birds, which would be lost following impoundment. Concerns were also raised over groundwater levels in low-lying areas of Cardiff possibly affecting cellars and underground electrical junctions. During the development of Cardiff Bay and of the Cardiff Bay Barrage, there was constant tension between the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation and Cardiff City Council (later Cardiff County Council). The National Assembly's Audit Committee spoke of a "fractured working relationship" between the two bodies. After the original impoundment of the waters of Cardiff Bay in November 1999 plans were mooted for a Royal inauguration of the barrage. That, it was envisaged, would be held on St David's Day 2000 to be attended by the Queen and Morgan, a vociferous opponent of the scheme. In the event, no such event took place. On 1 March 2000, the day scheduled for the ceremony, the National Assembly of Wales announced that there would be no special ceremony held to mark the