News

Port changed website as Mustang collapsed

Published

11 years ago

July 11, 2014

NEW DETAILS have emerged this week showing how Milford Haven Port Authority rewrote its website deleting the key words ‘Trading Subsidiaries’ as controversial boat building firm Mustang Marine, collapsed.

In recent weeks Alec Don, Chief Executive of MHPA has been insisting that Mustang was never a trading subsidiary, and that the port should not have to pay back hundreds of thousands of pounds to local firms who were not paid as the firm went into administration. Alec Don told port stakeholders at the annual consultative meeting last month that the port had a “responsibility but not a legal liability” to Mustangs creditors. He later added: “I bitterly regret that Mustang went down. We lost £2.7m” The extraordinary on-line revelation, is clear evidence that the Authority was advertising Mustang as a subsidiary – a signal to suppliers that giving a credit line to Mustang was rock solid. The news ties in with what creditors of Mustang Marine have been saying – that the port does have a legal responsibility to pay debts owed. Simon Hart MP told The Herald: “The key question for all those local firms owed money is whether Mustang was a “trading subsidiary” of the Port Authority. The fact that the website has been ‘adjusted’ is a cause of great concern. I will be raising this, and other issues, with Stephen Hammond the Minister very soon.” His views were echoed by Stephen Crabb MP, who said when on a visit to Milford Haven Coastguard Station yesterday: “There is no doubt that as Mustang collapsed the Port Authority did everything they did to distance themselves from Mustang’s debts. When I got calls about Mustang it was always from Alec Don – the Port Authority.” On its official website, in late August 2013, the Authority wrote: “The Port of Milford Haven Group includes the following Trading Subsidiaries” and “The Port of Milford Haven merged its ship repair business, Milford Haven Ship Repairers with international boat builders, Mustang Marine, early in 2012. The deal included the substantial investment of new capital to finance growth plans of the enlarged business. With the specific objectives if shortening new-build delivery times, and providing station of the art fabrication facilities in Pembroke Dock.” However, as Mustang was collapsing, the website was quietly updated. The words ‘Trading Subsidiaries’ was replaced with ‘Associate Companies’. The sub-headline was also similarly replaced and an introductory paragraph about Mustang the following final sentence was added: “Mustang Marine is 50% owned by the Port of Milford Haven, with management responsibilities remaining with Mustang’s own team.” Speaking two weeks ago Simon Hart MP told the Herald: “I understand that Alec Don and Andrew Jones were the directors who signed off Mustang Marine’s accounts for 2012, which correctly stated under accounting guidelines that the company was a subsidiary of MHPA. It is for this reason that I find Alec Don’s comments that he cannot account for the different terminology used by the respective auditors of the Port Authority and Mustang Marine confusing.” The Port Authority will now have to explain why these differences also made it onto their official website. The Pembrokeshire Herald contacted Milford Haven Port Authority for a comment. Alec Don said “A reference in the MHPA annual report to Mustang as a subsidiary was actually a mistake, and was not meant in the true legal sense. This is also the same situation for the website.”

News

BBC apologises to Herald’s editor for inaccurate story

Published

40 minutes ago

December 4, 2025

Staff Writer

THE BBC has issued a formal apology and amended a six-year-old article written by BBC Wales Business Correspondent Huw Thomas after its Executive Complaints Unit ruled that the original headline and wording gave an “incorrect impression” that Herald editor Tom Sinclair was personally liable for tens of thousands of pounds in debt.

The 2019 report, originally headlined “Herald newspaper editor Tom Sinclair has £70,000 debts”, has now been changed.

The ECU found: “The wording of the article and its headline could have led readers to form the incorrect impression that the debt was Mr Sinclair’s personal responsibility… In that respect the article failed to meet the BBC’s standards of due accuracy.”

Mr Sinclair said: “I’m grateful to the ECU for the apology and for correcting the personal-liability impression that caused real harm for six years. However, the article still links the debts to ‘the group which publishes The Herald’ when in fact they related to printing companies that were dissolved two years before the Herald was founded in 2013. I have asked the BBC to add that final clarification so the record is completely accurate.”

A formal apology and correction of this kind from the BBC is extremely rare, especially for a story more than six years old.

Business

First wind turbine components arrive as LNG project moves ahead

Published

3 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Tom Sinclair

THE FIRST ship carrying major components for Dragon LNG’s new onshore wind turbines
docked at Pembroke Port yesterday afternoon last week, marking the start of physical
deliveries for the multi-million-pound renewable energy project.

The Maltese-registered general cargo vessel Peak Bergen berthed at Pembroke Dock on
shortly after 4pm on Wednesday 26th November, bringing tower sections and other heavy
components for the three Enercon turbines that will eventually stand on land adjacent to the
existing gas terminal at Waterston.

A second vessel, the Irish-flagged Wilson Flex IV, has arrived in Pembroke Port today is
due to arrive in the early hours of this morning (Thursday) carrying the giant rotor blades.
The deliveries follow a successful trial convoy on 25 November, when police-escorted low-
loader trailers carried dummy loads along the planned route from the port through
Pembroke, past Waterloo roundabout and up the A477 to the Dragon LNG site.

Dragon LNG’s Community and Social Performance Officer, Lynette Round, confirmed the
latest movements in emails to the Herald.

“The Peak Bergen arrived last week yesterday with the first components,” she said. “We are
expecting another delivery tomorrow (Thursday) onboard the Wilson Flex IV. This will be
blades and is currently showing an ETA of approximately 03:30.”

The £14.3 million project, approved by Welsh Ministers last year, will see three turbines with
a combined capacity of up to 13.5 MW erected on company-owned land next to the LNG
terminal. Once operational – expected in late 2026 – they will generate enough electricity to
power the entire site, significantly reducing its carbon footprint.

Port of Milford Haven shipping movements showed the Peak Bergen approaching the Haven
throughout Wednesday morning before finally tying up at the cargo berth in Pembroke Dock.

Cranes began unloading operations yesterday evening.

The Weather conditions are currently were favourable for this morning’s the arrival of
the Wilson Flex IV, which was tracking south of the Smalls at midnight.

The abnormal-load convoys carrying the components from the port to Waterston are
expected to begin early next year, subject to final police and highway approvals.

A community benefit fund linked to the project will provide training opportunities and energy-
bill support for residents in nearby Waterston, Llanstadwell and Neyland.
Further updates will be issued by Dragon LNG as the Port of Milford Haven as the delivery
programme continues.

Photo: Martin Cavaney

Crime

Banned for 40 months after driving with cocaine breakdown product in blood

Published

3 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Sarah-Jane Absalom

A MILFORD HAVEN woman has been handed a lengthy driving ban after admitting driving with a controlled drug in her system more than ten times over the legal limit.

SENTENCED AT HAVERFORDWEST

Sally Allen, 43, of Wentworth Close, Hubberston, appeared before Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (Dec 4) for sentencing, having pleaded guilty on November 25 to driving with a proportion of a specified controlled drug above the prescribed limit.

The court heard that Allen was stopped on August 25 on the Old Hakin Road at Tiers Cross while driving an Audi A3. Blood analysis showed 509µg/l of Benzoylecgonine, a breakdown product of cocaine. The legal limit is 50µg/l.

COMMUNITY ORDER AND REHABILITATION

Magistrates imposed a 40-month driving ban, backdated to her interim disqualification which began on November 25.

Allen was also handed a 12-month community order, requiring her to complete 10 days of rehabilitation activities as directed by the Probation Service.

She was fined £120, ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £114 surcharge. Her financial penalties will be paid in £25 monthly instalments from January 1, 2026.

The bench—Mrs H Roberts, Mr M Shankland and Mrs J Morris—said her guilty plea had been taken into account when passing sentence.