Dadl Fer Carthu Tywod
Short Debate Sand Dredging
12/7/2000

Alun Cairns:Since being elected to the Assembly 12 months ago, no one issue has gained as much public concern as the erosion of sand from Welsh beaches. Health, education and the economy have been of prime concern to the Assembly but each political party has presented a different policy to address the problems and opportunities that we face. However, this issue has gained the united concern of people from all parties and backgrounds, whether they are young surfers in Porthcawl or members of the Women's Institute in Swansea.
I recently held a save our sands surgery at Limeslade beach outside Mumbles. Out of every issue for which the Assembly has responsibility, this one has galvanised more support than any. My postbag has been swamped with correspondence from across the United Kingdom and I even received an e-mail last night from someone in Belgium.
Today, local activists in Swansea launch a website entitled www.Gower-sos.com. One hundred and two tonnes of sand have been extracted from the Bristol Channel. That quantity is naturally difficult to imagine but it can be visualised if I equate it with sand on a four-and-a-half mile deep football field. One million tonnes of sand are being dredged per annum from the Nash Bank off Porthcawl and 150,000 tonnes from the Helwick Bank off Gower. Concerns lie around the applications to the Assembly Secretary by dredging companies to double the dredging from the Helwick bank and to extend dredging from the Nash Bank by 10 years.
Sand is a limited resource and the banks have been there since the ice age. To rape our environment in such a way would be an abuse of all our privileges. An application for such a licence is not taken lightly. There have been concerns about dredging and its effect on our beaches for many years. The Welsh Office Minister, Gwilym Jones, commissioned a report into the issues. It was expected to take two years to be published but we have already been waiting for more than three.
There are two obvious reasons for concern and caution: one is to safeguard the environment and the other is to protect the economy of seaside resorts. However, it is more than that. Every Member from every political party in the Assembly is doing everything possible to sell a positive, modern image of Wales, and our coastline is a fundamental part of that.
5:02 p.m.
We now have some of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. Last week, the Marine Conservation Society--although its criterion was based on water quality--included 58 Welsh beaches in its Good Beach Guide. Such guides attract tens of thousands of visitors to Wales every year. Tourism is expected to be one of the economy's fastest growing sectors. The Economic Development Committee has considered recommending increasing the budget to the Wales Tourist Board, but there is little point in doing so if the jewel in the tourism crown is being eroded.
I recently attended a briefing in Swansea in which the Assembly officials made a presentation of their research. I arrived at the meeting with the expectation that the research would underline the experiences of the many people who walk and use the beaches of Porthcawl and the Gower regularly. The presentation was based on the results of a great deal of sophisticated equipment, including laser monitoring of sand levels, sonar to establish the depth of water and sand, as well as aerial photographs monitoring our beaches. Although I accept that this type of monitoring and research is required, any individual with a personal experience of the beaches could have given a more accurate account. To my alarm, the officials claimed that there was more sand on the beaches today than there was five years ago--a claim which is rejected by local residents. Without doubt, rocks are now visible where they have never been seen before across much of the south Wales coastline.
At Rest Bay in Porthcawl, there is a two-feet step from the end of a concrete ramp leading to the beach. That was sunken when it was originally built. At Caswell Bay or Langland Bay outside Swansea, a far greater proportion of the coastline is made up of pebbles than ever before and at Three Cliffs Bay in Gower, the sand levels have dropped and mud is clearly visible. I mentioned the great response generated from the concerned public, and this morning I received an e-mail from an individual who has worked in the dredging industry for over 30 years. She told me that a short time ago, dredging pipes were 30-feet long; now they have had to extend them to 60 feet, which again underlines the feelings of local residents.
Whatever academic scientists claim and whatever explanations they try to offer, the reality is different. It was said that thalidomide was safe. It was also said that asbestos did not cause cancer. Chernobyl was believed to be the safest nuclear power station in the world. Life is full of scientists being proved wrong.
At that meeting, the officials reported that it was a dynamic, complex environment, which we are all trying to understand. That says it all. We are all trying to understand; that is the main thrust of the argument. However, we do not understand the issue, and therefore the precautionary principle must be followed. Our responsibility is to prove that dredging affects the sand levels on our beaches. We all know that that is the case, but proving it in scientific terms is not as straightforward. Why cannot the responsibility be reversed so that sand-dredging companies must prove that the extraction is not having the detrimental effect with which we are familiar?
Research is financed by the dredging companies. It would be better for the Assembly to organise the research and for funds to be collected from the licence applications, thereby securing complete impartiality. The Assembly is criticised regularly for not being able to take action because of a lack of power or will. We can make a difference on this. The Assembly has the power and the authority to approve or reject these licence applications. We are all aware of the risk of court action by licence applicants, but if the legislation was framed in such a way as to place the obligation on the sand companies, then we would have a greater chance of securing the result that we wanted, namely, a ban on licences for increasing sand dredging.
Peter Black: It is important to stress that this campaign against sand dredging has all-party support. Members, MPs and councillors from all parties across south-west Wales have been concerned about the loss of sand, and like Alun, they have been trying to highlight that with the Assembly Secretary and other authorities.
I have been a member of Swansea council for 16 years and it has raised this matter on many occasions in the past when dredging licences came before it. It is important to apply the precautionary principle because over 100 million tonnes of sand have been removed from the Bristol Channel since 1955. The impact of that amount of material being removed is seen on beaches in Gower and Porthcawl and on other beaches along the south-west Wales coast. I hope that this debate, which was initiated by Alun, can have an impact on considering future dredging licenses.
Val Feld: This is a vital issue for everybody in Swansea and for many people outside Swansea who value the Gower coast. Those of us who have lived there and walked on those beaches know that there is a major problem. Sand is disappearing from them. The key issue is why. We must get to the bottom of that. Although I hope that we will be able to prevent an extension of the dredging, it is equally important that we continue to investigate and put resources into discovering what this is about. We must find out whether it is just dredging or whether, as appears more likely, a range of factors contribute to the impact on our coastline right down the Severn estuary.
Local people have fought this over a long period. I am sorry to bring a note of descent into this discussion but I remind Alun that the original planning application in the early 1990s was opposed by the local authorities in that area, all of which were Labour. A Conservative Secretary of State for Wales agreed to it and put no conditions on it. The lack of conditions on that application is a major problem. We must find a way forward and I am delighted that we are all on side about this and that we are looking for a way forward. However, we must recognise that the planning laws, as they stand, place us in a difficult position. I have absolute faith in Sue and in her ability to help us find a way through this. However, we must recognise that this is a long-term issue that we must tackle probably right along the south Wales coast.
David Lloyd: I am happy to support this, as a resident of Swansea for the last 16 years and as a witness that the beaches are being denuded of sand. That is the basic effect of this and that is why I speak on behalf of everyone who is concerned about Gower's disappearing beaches.
To add a new dimension to the argument, would Sue Essex consider funding a long-term coastal survey of the whole south Wales coast--the whole area allegedly affected by commercial sand dredging? Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council does that and could give us invaluable advice on the most cost-effective way of carrying out such a survey. Whatever the results of environmental reports, there is no substitute for a long-term survey of the south Wales coast. We do not have that, but we need that information to settle this argument once and for all.
Sue Essex: This is an important issue for local Members and the public, but also for everybody in Wales. The beaches, particularly those around the Gower, are important to many people. They have meant many years of enjoyment.
Our approach to matters in future will be different to that in the past. If I have my way, we will consider the method of conserving natural resources and how we develop those in a sustainable way. That would be a big cultural difference to how we developed natural resources in the past. They have been developed very much in response to the market. Over the next couple of years, we can establish a way forward for the future. I accept Dai's suggestion. We must include an element of knowledge and ensure much more certainty, but do our best to safeguard economic development while protecting natural resources.
Returning to the current situation, we have inherited past decisions on licenses, which make life difficult. We must consider that carefully. To help us through these difficult decisions, we have accumulated and are accumulating a great deal of survey information such as beach profiles, a study of the banks and an aerial coastal survey. Nowhere else has been surveyed and monitored as much as the south Wales coast. This information will be available for presentation. It is available now if Members want to see it. I have spoken to officials and some of it is in paper form and some on a geographic information system. If people want to see that now, please go ahead and do so.
5:12 p.m.
Jane Davidson: The South Wales Echo reports that I disappear to the Gower almost every weekend when I can, so I can also testify to having seen the sand disappear. I am pleased that you talk about this survey. In your closing speech, will you say whether other parts of Wales are experiencing similar problems? I am concerned that we are working in evidence-based politics. If we are going to do this, and dredging is the problem, I would be opposed to continuation. However, I want to be sure that the issue is being addressed across Wales, as Dai Lloyd suggests, in a coastal survey, so that we can be sure that any action taken and finance put forward by the Assembly tackles the problem and ensures that we do not lose more sand from our beaches in the Gower.
Sue Essex: That is the point and I will go into it in more detail. Other areas are losing sand. In Ynys Môn, there is a real problem on Newborough sands where there is no dredging and the beach has disappeared. Unfortunately, beaches in the UK have disappeared. You are right. We must be sensible and rational, consider the evidence and try to understand what is happening, as Val said, we need to understand, but it is not easy. We can then make rational decisions about the future.
Sand is dredged from the Bristol Channel and elsewhere, and sandpits are sunk, because commercially, we need sand. I do not know if Alun Cairns has laid a patio using sand. The Cardiff Bay barrage that his party strongly supported used a lot of sand from the Bristol Channel. I said that because we need and use sand. If we do not take it from there--and I understand your points--we would have to look for it elsewhere. It is extracted for commercial reasons. Therefore, we must consider what happens in the economy.
In terms of us giving an opinion on the licence, we give a Government view, but the Crown of States gets the money from the dredging and it will make the decision. It is a complicated situation. When people talk about a dynamic coast, that is the reality. Taking the dredging to one side, we cannot control the coast.
Edwina Hart: I attended the meeting in Swansea when we discussed dredging and the alleged scientific evidence. Martin Caton, MP organised the meeting of my constituents and myself, and I have enormous concerns. The local people spoke about their expertise on the coastline and what they have seen during a lifetime in terms of tide patterns and what happens to the sand at certain times of the year. Do you agree that local people have walked those beaches for 60 or 70 years and they have a good understanding of dredging issues?
Sue Essex: I was pleased to come to Gower that day and talk to you, Martin, residents and members of the civic society. They kept a log over a long time. It was interesting to note the differential changes around the Gower. We walked on Port Eynon that day, which showed areas of rock and bareness. I then went to Mewslade, which had thick sand, so there are several patterns there, which we need to understand. There are natural processes that none of us can control. Alun Cairns's point is that we must look at what man is doing, or in view of our debate on equality of opportunity, what woman is doing, or we, as humanity, are doing to ensure that our decisions are made in a way that does not damage our precious environment.
We will consider the precautionary principle issue, as Peter said, and take advice on it. My understanding at present is that the precautionary principle must be based on a degree of knowledge and proven evidence. We will be looking at that. I am looking forward to the presentation of information that is available. I want all Members and members of the public to be able to see the information that is being collected, as it is a lot of work. The Bristol Channel marine aggregate study will be introduced in September, which looks at the Bristol Channel as a whole, as there is also capacity within the deep-sea channels. At the end of this, I hope that we will at least be able to make an informed decision. I know that around the Gower and along the Nash in Carwyn's area people are desperately concerned about their beaches. We can understand why. They have been a great source of pleasure for many years. That will be uppermost in our minds when we make the decision.

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