SIGNING THE PETITION WAS NOT ENOUGH

The Gower Save Our sands Campaign needs your help.

The Welsh Assembly has issued a Draft Marine Aggregate Dredging Policy (MADP) document for consultation, which is available to the general public through the Save Our Sands web site (address below.) This report gives a cautionary go-ahead for more dredging off the Helwick point and for possible areas from Mumbles to Rhosilli, in some places just below the low tide mark. The consultation period ends on 20th July and all comments must be made by then. This policy will then be taken into account in all future decisions regarding Dredging Licence Applications.

The Assembly Environment Minister Sue Essex will consider the application later this year from the Dutch-owned Llanelli Sand Dredging Company to double the amount of sand extracted from Helwick Point, just off Port Eynon, to 150,000 tonnes a year. In the last ten years dredging has been steadily increasing and is now extracted in large quantities, during that time the sand levels on the Gower beaches has dropped significantly. Surveys carried out by the dredging companies on which the Government base their decisions are found to be flawed and inadequate. Various research carried out by other institutions has reported a proven exchange between the Helwick bank and Gower shoreline. Over 7 million tonnes of sand has been extracted from the Nash Bank area at Porthcawl and it is becoming evident that this could also be playing a part in the erosion of sand from Gower beaches. As the research is inconclusive either way The Assembly should be encouraged to adopt a far more cautionary approach to dredging. There are other options for the construction industry, but these are not as financially lucrative for the Assembly in the short term. One of the Assembly's remits is to encourage efficient and appropriate use of minerals and the reuse and recycling of suitable materials including construction waste. However there are only two or three sites recycling construction waste in the whole of Great Britain.

The Assembly is tabulating correspondence on the consultation document. It has to take note of opinion on adverse environmental and other impacts of dredging for marine aggregates, eg; leisure and tourism, during the consultation period. We want as many individuals and societies etc, to write in requesting rejection of the application from Llanelli Sand Dredging Company, a halt to the continuation of dredging in this area and that it adopts a cautionary policy of a ten mile ban of marine aggregate dredging from the Gower shore line, as exists in other countries, including Holland!

Write to Linda Scott, P4 Planning Division, National Assembly for Wales, Cathay's Park, Cardiff CF10 3NQ email Linda Scott at: linda.scott@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Please copy your letter to The Assembly Environment Minister Sue Essex, National Assembly for Wales, Cathay's Park, Cardiff CF10 3NQ
email; sue.essex@wales.gov.uk

Please log on to the Gower Save Our Sands web site at: www.gower-sos.org
This site has been updated and gives a full picture of the problem with links to the full draft of the MADP. The Gower SOS is compiling a database of people who want to be involved in the campaign to save our sands, please leave your email details on the site, even if you have done so previously. We will be supplying briefing notes to put in your letters via our web site in the near future.

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