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Media Release Janet Davies, a Plaid Cymru Assembly Member for South West Wales has welcomed the promise from the Assembly's new Environment Secretary Sue Essex, that all latest surveys and reports would be taken into account before deciding on the future of sand dredging off the South Wales coast. In a letter replying to Janet Davies's concerns over the issue of extending existing dredging licences for the Nash and Helwick sand banks off South Wales, Sue Essex promised that all issues would be considered, including the environmental consequences of alternative sources. Janet Davies stated, "I very much welcome Sue Essex's approach to an issue that raises cross-party concerns. I will be very surprised if there is not a confirmed link between beach erosion and excessive off-shore scan dredging." She pointed out that the only concerns she had about the reply was the insinuation that the two sand banks supplied only West Wales. She said,"These two sand banks are major UK sand suppliers. " Janet Davies said that she suspected that
the painfully slow supply of information to the public from New Labour,
was a deliberate ploy to limit the demand for funds in the first funding
year. She stated that English regions receiving Objective One funding
such as Cornwall, had already Janet Davies concluded, "Europe expects
spending to start at a high level and tail off at the end of the funding
period, but Alun Michael is proposing the opposite, with no matched funding
in the first year. The message is simple - if Alun Michael does not deliver
on new matching money, then he's out of a job. We need a leader with their
first loyalties to Wales - and not END CONTACT Janet Davies tel. 01222 898289 / 07974 374299 |