Spiced rum brand teams up with Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company and Chilli Farm for sunny seaside celebration

A FLAVOUR-packed celebration took place at The Old Point House in Angle on Saturday (May 17) for the official launch of a new Barti Spiced Rum BBQ Sauce – a collaboration between Barti Rum, the Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company and Pembrokeshire Chilli Farm.

The event, held at the historic 16th-century pub perched on the shoreline of East Angle Bay, brought together locals and visitors for an afternoon of food, music and sea air – with live entertainment from The Connections adding to the lively atmosphere.

Guests were treated to a one-off menu featuring slow-cooked belly pork sandwiches glazed in the new Barti BBQ sauce, served with Point House Kitchen salads, house pickles and Pembrokeshire potatoes. A Barti Rum Punch was also served, with vegetarian alternatives available.

The new barbecue sauce – infused with the brand’s popular spiced rum – is described by the company as smoky, sweet, and slightly spicy. It is suitable for vegans and gluten-free, and is now available to purchase online and through selected local retailers.

A spokesperson for Barti Rum said: “This new sauce is a proper Pembrokeshire collaboration – made with seaweed, local chilli, and of course our rum. It’s the perfect addition to any summer barbecue.”

The Old Point House, which reopened in recent years under the stewardship of the Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company, has become a destination for those seeking local seafood and distinctive coastal cuisine.

The Herald understands that more collaborative events are planned throughout the summer season, with further product launches on the horizon.

A shock on the Carmarthenshire Farm

A FARMER from Carmarthenshire is at the centre of a growing legal storm over the UK Government’s controversial 5G rollout policy – a policy critics say is slowing progress, not speeding it up.

In 2017, ministers promised a faster, cheaper path to mobile connectivity by changing the law to let telecoms companies pay landowners far less for installing masts. But instead of unleashing 5G, the new rules have triggered a wave of legal battles – and rural Wales is bearing the brunt.

Thomas Richards from Llangennech, who agreed to host a mast in 2016 for around £5,500 a year, was stunned when the new rules allowed the telecoms company to revise their offer to just £3.50 a year.

“Negotiations were very stressful. I felt we were taken advantage of as a family,” he said. “I can’t believe the government is allowing this to happen. Who is going to want a mast on their land now?”

His case is one of more than a dozen disputes across Wales, all stemming from the 2017 reforms to the Electronic Communications Code.

Wales is now a legal hotspot for telecom disputes, with more than 14 tribunal cases since 2021. These include disputes with Cardiff International Airport, South Wales Fire and Rescue Authority, and farmers in Snowdonia and Powys.

The number of mast-related legal cases across the UK has surged from just 33 in the 30 years before the code change to more than 1,100 since 2017.

Many site owners – from farmers and churches to care homes and sports clubs – have reported rent drops of 90 percent or more, often with little say in the matter. Campaign group Protect and Connect say some landowners feel bullied and cornered.

In one case, a hill farmer in North Wales saw his annual rent slashed from £5,500 to £3.50. A park visitor centre lost £9,800 a year in mast income, damaging their ability to operate. A church in mid Wales was left scrambling to pay heating bills after its mast rent collapsed.

In response, telecom companies argue that the changes were necessary to stop landowners charging what they call ransom rents that stalled network upgrades. The UK Government insists the reforms are about making digital connectivity affordable and universal.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said it wants fairer, faster and more collaborative negotiations, and introduced the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act in 2022 to encourage dispute resolution.

But critics, including the Farmers’ Union of Wales, say the reforms have gone too far. One landowner was offered just £32 total for a 10-year lease – down from an earlier offer of £4,650 per year.

In Pembrokeshire, the battle over connectivity has a familiar ring. Residents in Tenby have been complaining about poor mobile signal for years, with tourists flooding in each summer only worsening the problem.

County Councillor Michael Williams said: “All the providers are blaming visitor numbers, but that excuse doesn’t justify the charges people are paying. It’s the same problem every year.”

One resident told The Herald he had missed hospital appointments because of poor signal. Businesses relying on card machines and mobile bookings say the network failures cost them money and reputation.

Efforts to install a 20-metre mast in Tenby to ease pressure have stalled due to planning objections within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Officials say it’s a difficult balance between connectivity and conservation.

Another controversial mast plan in the Preseli Hills was recently rejected due to its visual impact. Despite the potential to improve rural signal, inspectors upheld objections that it would harm the landscape.

In Cardiff and other urban areas, rooftop masts are also facing disputes over low renewal offers, showing this issue is not confined to the countryside.

Official Ofcom figures show Wales lags behind on mobile coverage. Only 62 percent of land area in Wales has 4G from all four major networks. In some rural constituencies, that figure drops below 50 percent. Superfast broadband access in Pembrokeshire stands at around 93 percent, still below the Welsh average.

Broadband tells a similar tale of two Waleses. Overall, about 96 percent of homes in Wales can access superfast broadband via fixed lines or wireless solutions – roughly on par with the UK average. But rural counties lag behind. Powys has the lowest superfast availability at just 84 percent of premises. Ceredigion is at 86 percent. Pembrokeshire stands around 93 percent – better, but still below the Welsh average. When it comes to future-proofed networks, the gap is starker: only 40 percent of premises in Pembrokeshire have access to full-fibre broadband so far, compared to nearly 70 percent of premises in Cardiff.

Some relief for landowners has started to arrive via the courts. In a recent case, the Upper Tribunal increased the annual rent for a greenfield mast site from £750 to £1,750, after ruling that the earlier valuation was too low. Farming unions hailed the decision, but warned it was still far below the market rates common before 2017.

Campaigners and MPs are now urging a review of the policy before new rules expand the same approach to 15,000 more sites across the UK. Legal experts warn the number of tribunal cases could double again if this happens.

Telecoms industry representatives argue that the reforms were needed to break deadlock and reduce deployment costs. They say most landowners still agree terms without dispute, and that masts are essential national infrastructure, not just commercial equipment.

But for rural communities, that message is wearing thin. Many feel they are being asked to sacrifice land, income and peace of mind – all while still waiting for improved service.

In Tenby, local plasterer Ben Jones says poor signal is costing him work. “I’ve missed bookings from clients because they couldn’t get through,” he said. “One customer said it took him five tries to make contact.”

Another resident, Paul, told The Herald he had missed hospital calls and emergency transport arrangements due to unreliable signal. “It’s ridiculous that in 2025, my phone signal is worse than it was in the 1990s,” he said.

Shops relying on mobile card machines also report frequent outages. One shop owner said: “It’s embarrassing having to explain to customers that we can’t process a payment because the network’s gone down again.”

There is growing consensus that progress on connectivity must be matched by fairness for those who host it. As the Carmarthenshire farmer put it: “I want better signal too. But not if it means giving up my land for pennies.”

Bridging the digital divide in Wales may require more than telecom towers. It may demand trust, balance, and real partnership between the countryside and the companies trying to connect it.

RURAL bus operators are petrified by the Welsh Government’s plans to introduce a London-style bus network in Wales, the industry warned.

Scott Pearson, chair of the Coach and Bus Association Cymru, gave evidence on the bus bill which seeks to bring buses into public control, with operators bidding for contracts.

Mr Pearson, who has been running bus services for 25 years, cautioned against a regional approach or modelling reforms on other franchise systems such as Greater Manchester’s.

“That’s a massive population in a big urban area,” he told the Senedd’s infrastructure committee. “Wales is not like that: you’ve got three big cities in the bottom, one at the top and, in between, a whole load of hills and mountains.

“The rural aspect to this, our members – the SME [small- and medium-sized enterprise] membership – are petrified about this bill.”

Expressing concerns about smaller operators being squeezed out, Mr Pearson told the meeting on May 15: “‘Petrified’ is the right word to use because we don’t have detail.”

Aaron Hill, director of the Confederation of Passenger Transport Cymru, agreed: “Scott is right, buses are inherently a very local service and respond to very local needs. We would be missing a trick if local authorities didn’t have a bigger role in how we shape the network.”

Mr Hill warned of significant barriers for SMEs, with six-figure costs in some parts of the UK to bid for franchises and regulatory hurdles to clear to even take part in the procurement.

“We need, if we’re going to do it successfully in Wales, to overcome that,” he said.

Mr Pearson stressed: “If you hand a guy who’s got ten buses a 150-page document for the franchise and say ‘do you want this?’… they’re not going to do it, they’re going to sell up.”

Mr Hill cautioned a change in the regulatory model will not guarantee success, warning the bill does little to take buses out of traffic, coordinate roadworks nor speed up journey times.

He said: “The bill doesn’t actually change the economics of running bus services in Wales – so many of the challenges that the network faces today, the network will still face on the other side of re-regulation.”

Raising examples of other franchised networks, Mr Hill said London has historically had a gap of around £700m between the cost of the service and the income generated.

He said the gap in Greater Manchester, which took control of buses in 2023, is about £250m and the Welsh bill exposes the network to similar affordability challenges.

Mr Hill told Senedd Members: “We think the bill only lends itself to one type of franchise, a gross-cost franchise – that is the franchise that carries the most risk for taxpayers.”

Mr Pearson warned the public purse will shoulder all the risk under the bill as drafted.

Mr Hill warned a regulatory impact assessment (RIA) published alongside the bill was insufficient, with “at least” £200m of additional costs not factored in.

“That feels to me to be a significant question that hangs over the viability of franchising,” he said, pointing to examples including national insurance tax hikes and staff costs.

In written evidence, the Confederation of Passenger Transport Cymru warned: “We are concerned that the assessment of the financial implications are overly optimistic and based on weak assumptions and unrealistic forecasts.”

Mr Pearson similarly criticised a lack of detail in the bill and impact assessment, making it difficult to understand the costs and challenges.

He said: “If we’re trying to do the same with the current funding, and adding a whole load of costs into it from TfW [Transport for Wales], for instance, it’s just simply not going to work because you can’t get more for less.”

Mr Pearson added: “It talks about patronage increase in the RIA – that’s a big, big faux pas because nothing in this bill… looks at the main cause… which is congestion.

“It’s not dealt with at all. I think we’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here and we’re not… addressing the main problems that we currently face as operators.”

Mr Hill added: “There’s a real risk here: we’ve built up public expectation, in the same way… as with the railways, then delivery or significant improvement doesn’t follow for a long time.”

Asked about the scope of the bill, with councils rather than ministers remaining responsible for school transport, Mr Pearson questioned the logic of separating the two.

He raised the example of a rural operator, which provides bus services and school transport, missing out on a franchise, asking: “What happens to the home to school, the local authority picks it up? That’s a whole… different ball game… I don’t think that is going to work well.”