PLANS by one of the largest independent organic poultry producers in Wales to extend their Pembrokeshire facilities have been given the go-ahead by the national park.

In an application to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Walwyn’s Castle-based Capestone Organic Poultry Ltd, through agent Harries Planning and Design Management,sought permission for a new storage shed on site.

A supporting statement said: “Capestone Organic Poultry Ltd is an established farming enterprise (established over 20 years ago) and has grown into a large independent poultry producer, processing between 40 and 50,000 chickens a week.

“A large range of activities associated with the rearing and killing of poultry (chickens and turkeys), the preparation of various products and subsequent dispatch of products occurs within Capestone Farm.

“Capestone Organics has also expanded into the processing of organic beef, lamb, pork, and salmon. The complex comprises a mixture of conventional portal frame sheds and stone buildings throughout the complex, which have been expanded and altered over the years as the business has grown.”

It added: “The proposed storage shed is to be located adjacent to the existing loading bay located to the north of the complex. The proposed shed will be a conventional portal framed structure, with insulated box profile sheet elevations to match existing buildings on site.

“The existing access to the site is to be retained, and there will be no increase in capacity of workers on site. The proposed shed will allow better access to storage, will help to facilitate daily operations and will help the business run more efficiently.”

An officer report recommending approval said Capestone Organic Poultry Ltd is one of the largest independent organic poultry producers in Wales; the proposed building measuring approximately 30 metres in length, 15 metres in width, and six metres to the ridge, providing a total floor area of approximately 450 square metres.

It added: “The proposed storage shed at Capeston Farm is considered an appropriate development within the established farm complex. It respects the landscape character [of St Bride’s Bay], preserves nearby heritage assets, and safeguards residential amenity.”

The application was conditionally approved by park officers.

PEMBROKESHIRE County Council, which has had many fears of budgets firmly in the red in recent years, is on course to end the financial year £1m in credit.

A report to be heard at the council’s corporate overview and scrutiny committee, meeting on November 20, will outline the financial position for the second quarter of the current financial year, with a projected outturn of £325.6m for the agreed £326.6m budget, representing a £1m saving.

However, that figure is lower than the first financial quarter of 2025-’26 picture, which predicted an underspend of an even more impressive £2.2m.

Pembrokeshire County Council actually ended the last financial year underspending by £2m, in part due to an extra £1.2m raised through second homes tax, councillors have previously heard.

In recent years the situation has been far bleaker, with third quarter projections for the 2023-24 budget of an overspend of £6.6m, £3m up from quarter two’s £3.6m, which in itself was a reduction of the previous quarter one figure of a £4.8m predicted overspend.

The end of the 2024 financial year reduced that to a £3m overspend, and by November 2024 – the 2024-25 year – the council was predicted to overspend by £3.9m, later, this February that prediction reduced to £1.4m, before the final underspend.

The November 2025 committee report, and any responses, will later by considered by Cabinet on December 1.

A report for members says: “The increase in rolling budget expenditure and income is due to the receipt of grants confirmed during Q2, where possible this has been used to fund core expenditure,” adding a reduced net contribution from reserve relates to additional appropriations made into reserves as a consequence of waste management Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) payment requirements.

It says a “continued increase in level of demand, complexity and cost of packages within our School ALN provision, Children’s Services and Adult Services experienced during 2023-24 and 2024-25 has been recognised in base budget increases in these service areas for 2025/26,” adding: “It is hoped that the work being undertaken to try to manage the increase in demand and reduce the cost of packages will help to flatten these demand levels into 2026-27 and over the medium term financial plan.”

It says pressures include a shortfall of £1m on budgeted assumptions in funding towards the increased cost of Employers’ National Insurance Contributions, and a 2025-26 teachers pay award resulting in an additional £0.4m pressure on school budgets in 2025-26 and a further £0.7m full year base pressure for 2026-27; but there is   a projected underspend of £3.281m in Capital Financing Cost.

Director of Resources Jon Haswell in the report says: “It is pleasing to note that we are still projecting a year end underspend at the end of Quarter 2, albeit less than that projected at Quarter 1, primarily due to an underspend in capital financing costs more than offsetting all other additional budget pressures.”

Members are recommended to back the budget monitoring report.

FORMER Senedd Members should be permanently banned from judging the conduct of old colleagues, Wales’ top lawyer has suggested – contradicting plans in a new recall bill.

The recall bill includes a two-year cooling-off period before former Senedd politicians can become “lay” members of a committee which recommends sanctions for misbehaviour.

But Julie James, who is counsel general, the Welsh Government’s chief legal adviser, argued the disqualification should be for life to overcome public cynicism.

She made the comments on Monday November 17 while giving evidence on plans to introduce a system of recall, which would allow voters to remove politicians between elections.

Under the bill, for the first time, lay members would be appointed to the Senedd’s standards of conduct committee but – unlike in other parliaments – this could include former members.

Douglas Bain, the standards commissioner who investigates complaints about Senedd Members, has warned two years is too short and called for a four-year ban.

But Ms James went further, telling the legislation committee former Senedd politicians should not be able to sit as lay members in judgement of their old colleagues at all.

She told Senedd Members: “For what it’s worth, as a personal thing, not speaking as the counsel general, I think it should be a permanent disqualification.

“I think you would be permanently thought of as being in whatever camp you’d been in when you were elected – and that’s just a personal view, it’s not a government view.

“But, I can see, if you’re trying to overcome cynicism and so on, the idea that that person is now non-aligned and independent is difficult.”

Asked about the rationale for including the proposed two-year cooling-off period in the bill, the former solicitor told Senedd Members: “I mean it’s a place to start if I’m honest.”

She said the two-year prohibition aligns with the qualification requirements for the standards commissioner as well as rules on ministers taking jobs after politics.

Adam Price, the former Plaid Cymru leader, warned: “The degree of perceived conflict of interest here is possibly even greater because you’re being appointed not just to any external organisation but to the sub-committee of an institution you were a member of.”

Ms James concluded: “If you’ve been an elected member of the Senedd, you shouldn’t be allowed to be a lay member of one of its committees because, frankly, I don’t think you’d ever be regarded as ‘lay’ by anyone.”

She stressed ministers are walking a fine constitutional line – seeking to establish a legal framework without dictating internal rules to the Senedd – and she suggested the Welsh Government was open to amendments.

She said: “We felt very strongly that we shouldn’t start from the point of view of the government telling the [Senedd] commission how to conduct its business.”

Alun Davies, a Labour member of the legislation committee, raised concerns about plans to create election-related offences, including around false or misleading statements of fact.

Mr Davies warned the can was being kicked down the road, saying: “We’re being asked here to put on the statute book a duty to create an offence which itself isn’t defined.

He added: “But that feels like an extraordinarily unsatisfactory way of making law… It does not feel like we’re creating a serious piece of law here.”

Ms James told her colleague: “It’s for the next government and the parliamentary authorities to define that offence, yes.”

Mr Davies said: “You’re going to wish your successors well with this, I trust,” drawing a laugh from the counsel general.

Senedd Members heard an existing criminal offence on false statements during elections would be widened beyond a narrow focus on the character or conduct of another candidate.

But Ms James highlighted the need to “insulate” a bill “right on the edge” of devolved powers, saying: “We need to make sure we don’t push it so far that the whole thing fails.”

She warned the final vote on the bill would fall on the last government sitting day of term, with royal assent before dissolution on April 8 but after the Senedd rises at Easter.

She said the tight timetable means the bill would instantly fail if the UK Government was to refer the question of whether it is within the Senedd’s powers to the Supreme Court.

The counsel general told the committee: “We’re very keen that that doesn’t happen so we are perhaps being hyper-cautious about it.”