AIR quality near Spittal School has breached World Health Organisation (WHO) odour annoyance guidelines due to emissions from the Withyhedge landfill site, sparking health concerns among residents.

Public Health Wales (PHW) revealed that hydrogen sulphide levels exceeded the WHO odour annoyance threshold of 5ppb at the Spittal School monitoring station between October 1 and November 3. The colourless gas, known for its eggy smell, can cause symptoms including headaches, nausea, dizziness, and throat irritation when present at elevated levels.

Community complaints lead to monitoring

Air quality monitoring began earlier this year after Natural Resources Wales (NRW) received numerous complaints about odours linked to the landfill. While other monitoring sites recorded no such exceedances between September 7 and 22, PHW acknowledged the distress caused by the smells.

A PHW spokesperson said: “Bad smells in your community can be upsetting and lead to physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and sleep problems. These effects usually pass once the odour is gone.”

Health risk remains low

PHW emphasised that the long-term health risk to residents remains low. However, it advises residents to close windows and doors when odours occur to reduce exposure, while ensuring proper ventilation for safety. Once the smell dissipates, opening windows can help clear residual odours.

Calls for regulatory action

NRW stated that it is committed to ensuring the site operator, RML, takes steps to minimise emissions that could cause offsite odours. PHW, while monitoring the situation, clarified it has no regulatory authority over landfill operations.

“We understand the stress and anxiety caused by these odours,” said a PHW spokesperson. “We will continue reviewing and updating the health risk assessment as more data becomes available.”

Local residents continue to call for stronger action to address the issue, as the unpleasant odours disrupt daily life and raise ongoing concerns.

A major sea search got underway on Sunday evening following reports of a missing person in the sea off Rhossili.

Tenby Lifeboat received a call shortly after 11 pm on Sunday, November 24 from the coastguards, requesting the crew’s assistance.

“The volunteer crew was soon on the water and got to Rhossili in extremely rough seas as a result of Storm Bert,” commented a spokesperson for the Tenby crew

“The crew was requested to search around Worm’s Head using lights and night vision equipment.”

But after searching the coastline for around two hours, the crew was forced to stand down.

“It soon became obvious that the conditions were too rough for the lifeboat to get in close enough to be of any assistance, so with the lifeboat unable to safely provide assistance due to extremely rough seas, the crew stood down.”

When Jonathan Williams left his desk job in Swindon way back in 2010, his mission, to many, was impossible.

This is the man who hot-footed it back to Pembrokeshire to harvest seaweed from Freshwater West which he then used to create his multi award-winning ‘Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company.’

Using only choice produce sourced from the seas around Pembrokeshire, Jonathan’s innovative (and many would say courageous) idea began tickling the taste buds of some of the UK’s top chefs and food critics including James Martin who christened Williams as ‘the crazy seaweed man’.

Fast-forward seven years and once again Jonathan began honing yet another brain-storming idea, this time inspired by the mighty Bartholomew Roberts – otherwise known as Black Bart. After setting sail from his home in Little Newcastle at the age of 13, Bart gained notoriety as the most successful pirate in the ‘golden age of piracy’ who went on to raid 400 prize ships off the Americas and the West African coast between 1719 until his death from a wound to his throat, in 1722.

And so began Barti Spiced Rum.

“Everything was ticking along nicely at the Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company, and then in January 2017, Jonathan went off on paternity leave,” explained Barti Rum’s managing director, Fran Barnikel.

“Any normal person would have been busy changing nappies, but Jonathan, being the incredible entrepreneurial person that he is, came back to work saying, ‘Ok, I’m going to start a new company’.

“He’d read about Barti Ddu the pirate, and had always wanted to bring out a spiced rum in his honour.  So he’d spent his paternity leave investigating different distilleries and bottlers and slowly but surely, Barti Spiced Rum started to come to fruition.”

Because of Jonathan’s strong allegiance with Pembrokeshire seaweed, he knew from the outset that the natural product would be used in his rum.

“Jonathan wanted his rum to be vibrant in flavour, so the seaweed is infused, giving it a real depth of flavour and enhancing the other ingredients which include vanilla, cloves, cinnamon, orange and lemon,” said Fran.

The rum is distilled in the Caribbean and then exported to Cardiff where the Pembrokeshire seaweed along with the remaining ingredients are infused.

“Out first batch arrived in late summer and initially we sold only to people we knew,” continued Fran.

“But as time went on, we could see that there was definitely a market out there for expansion.

“Obviously there was a lot less niche for the rum as there had been for the seaweed, plus the gin market was picking up at the time.  But we could also see that the rum market was on the increase.  In many ways, it was perfect timing.  So we continued riding the wave.”

Jonathan and his team shun the rum purists who cite mixing it with coke or pepsi as sacrilege.

“All we want is for people to enjoy it,” said Fran.  “And this means drinking it exactly as they want.  If you want to add cola or ginger beer, that’s great.  But it’s also really good with cloudy apple juice and particularly now as we’re getting closer to Christmas, hot apple juice.”

The cream liqueur is also extremely versatile for cocktails, including the Manhattan, Mojito and Daiquiri.

Jonathan has steadfastly refused to add flavour varieties to his brand, adhering rigidly to the Barti Spiced.

“From the beginning, he wanted to create a strong product that would continue to do well, rather than dilute its vibrant flavour with other ingredients.”

But in Christmas 2023, Jonathan broke away from his rule by introducing a Barti Cream Liqueur.

“This was the first addition he’d ever introduced to the range and it was only supposed to last for the Christmas period.  But once again, because of the feedback we’ve received from our customers, we’ve kept it going and we’re now fully stocked for Christmas 2024.”

The Herald caught up with Fran as she travelled back to Pembrokeshire from Tesco’s headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, London.  Six weeks ago the company began selling their rum at a total of 58 Tesco stores throughout Wales, but the supermarket giant is now considering stocking Barti Spiced Rum throughout the whole of the UK.

Earlier this year, Barti Spiced Rum was named the best rum in the Great British Food Awards while the Barti Cream Liqueur has won eight separate awards in the World Drinks Awards including best in country, best new launch, and three golds awards in both the taste and design categories. 

One can’t help wondering, given the fact that eight years ago Barti Spiced Rum had yet to be given its first pouring, whether its success has come as a surprise.

““At the end of the day, Jonathan has that incredible ability to make everything work,” chuckled Fran.  “Everything that he captures tends to turn to gold.

“But we know that Barti Spiced Rum is a really strong product and something that’s very ‘Pembrokeshire-sentric’.  And the support we continue to get from the local cafes and pubs has been incredible and has really helped us to move forward.  The staff reach out, time and time again, with tasters and samples, and we know that they’re genuinely behind our brand.  And this is so important.  We are so grateful for everything they continue to do to support us.”