Alec Don and Stephen Crabb officially open the new lock gates

THE new Milford Dock lock gates were declared open at a ceremony this morning (Friday, June 26).

Many representatives from the Port Authority, Pembrokeshire County Council, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and Milford Haven Town Council were also in attendance.

The Secretary of State for Wales, Stephen Crabb, also attended and along with Alec Don, to officially open the new gates.

Milford Haven Port Authority Chief Executive, Alec Don said: “It’s a real pleasure to welcome you here for the opening of the lock gates. This project has involved many people, engineers, our own engineering department, our former engineering director Andrew Brown, Atkins who played a very important role in steering the completion.

“This is an important day for us as Milford Haven, these lock gates are a very substantial investment by the port to basically set up the Milford dock area to be the hub for marine leisure in the sheltered waterway in the heart of Pembrokeshire.

“The project was part funded through the Visit Wales coastal tourism project and we are hugely grateful for their support to help make this project possible.

“Overall we have spent in excess of £6-7million developing these lock gates and it really sets up the port for the next 100 years to be easy to access and a great location to come to and spend time in your boats.

“The Marina is the only 4-gold anchor accredited marina in Wales, we are hoping for five gold anchors and that will be a part of the masterplan project that we are pursuing and so the lock gates really represents, only the first part of what will be a continuous investment into Milford Dock.

“Whether you are talking about fishing, yachting, whether you are simply talking about people coming to Milford Dock as a great place to work, eat, relax and shop, that is the vision for the future that we have for Milford Dock.”

The Secretary of State for Wales, Stephen Crabb added: “An awful lot of people have been working incredibly hard over a number of years to make this big, really significant infrastructure project happen for Milford Haven.

“It is of significance, not only for the port and for the town but for the whole of Pembrokeshire when you think that Pembrokeshire is a leading tourist destination for the whole of Wales. Anything that adds to the quality of the offer that Pembrokeshire makes is the quality of infrastructure here, particularly for tourists and leisure users in the Haven, then that has to be a really good thing.

“It is a challenging project at times but we need that kind of investment in Pembrokeshire and this is the biggest investment in the port for more than 50 years.

“I really commend Alec and his team at the Port Authority for their strategic vision. The port is changing and new investment is needed to meet the challenges of the future. The master plan, that this investment represents part of, it has to be a good thing for the long term future of Pembrokeshire.”

The Mayor of Milford Haven, Cllr Stephen Joseph said: “It is a vote of confidence in some ways, that there is a future for Milford Haven and Pembrokeshire. It’s good for tourism, tourism has been there for many years and this can service industry as well as tourism, it’s absolutely super.”