Addressing the crowd: Cllr David Lloyd

AROUND 100 North Pembrokeshire residents packed into the Solva village hall on Wednesday night (Feb 18) to attend a public to discuss the future of the pebble bank at Newgale. The discussion, arranged by Pembrokeshire County Council, follows a number of breaches of the defences in recent years which has left residents questioning its effectiveness. Speaking at the meeting were Pembrokeshire County Council’s Head of Highways and Construction, Darren Thomas, and Assistant Engineer, Emyr Williams.

The officers gave a presentation on a projector screen which explained about climate change, and the impact on the Pembrokeshire Coast. The Authority explained that a consultation exercise was underway with the public over what to do about Newgale. The council said that they would be seeking funding for a £70,000 report on the future of coastal defences either from external sources, or from the council’s own capital expenditure budget. Mr Thomas said: “There’s a history of over-topping, in 1989 and more recently in 2014 and our management approach over the last 20 years has been to rebuild the bank.

In terms of the future we have come along today to talk about a vulnerability study we have commissioned.” County Councillor David Lloyd also addressed the crowd saying that he thought that a causeway could be constructed across the Newgale valley, and this should be built using money that the county should receive from the closure of the base at Brawdy. Cllr Lloyd later said: “My thanks to Darren Thomas and Emyr Williams of the Highways Department for staging this crucial meeting in Solva on the unsustainability of the shingle bank in Newgale and the dire potential consequences for the adjacent arterial road to Solva and St. Davids.”

Cllr Lloyd added: “In my view the creation of a causeway bridge across the valley is the only answer to the inevitable advance of the sea and the disappearance of the road, sooner than later. The cost of such a construction would, of course, be an issue. I would encourage the local population, however, to get behind a campaign to persuade government of the equity of funding such a bridge in the light of the huge public investments in transport infrastructure currently being proposed for the city regions of Swansea, Cardiff and Newport.” “Finally”, Cllr Lloyd said, “there is the matter of the military base in Brawdy, which is to close in 2018 after 65 years of underpinning the economy of the St. Davids peninsula. Pembrokeshire County Council is already considering the future potential uses of the site. Without a serviceable road access, however, there would be no future for this monolithic cold war edifice, which would slowly rot in perpetuity.

Would it not, therefore, be an appropriate legacy on the closure of Brawdy for government to fund a new, secure road access to Solva and St. Davids by way of a defence dividend to replace the considerable economic loss of the base to the community?” Mr Williams, who has been working on the Shoreline Management Plan, said that there are four options for coastline management: hold the shoreline, advance the shoreline, manage realignment of the shoreline or do nothing. The current approach at Newgale is management realignment, but Mr Williams told the packed meeting: “Eventually that will change to a no active intervention policy because there will be nothing there to manage. “We will keep putting it back, but only for a limited time.” The severe storms of January and February 2014 proved too tough a test for the pebbles, with a combination of howling winds and high tides collapsing parts of the bank. The road was left impassable for days, with motorists having to endure lengthy diversions. Last year, the Prime Minister, David Cameron has visited Pembrokeshire to survey the damage caused by the recent storms.

His visit included an unannounced stop The Duke of Edinburgh public house in Newgale. Speaking at the time the MP said: “Today the Prime Minister has paid tribute to the County Council’s workers who helped keep Pembrokeshire open during the recent storms, during which the County Council got a lot of things right. “It is a sad day that the County Council is in the news for the wrong reasons.” Jasper Slater, the owner of the pub for fourteen years told The Herald: “The Prime Minister arrived by helicopter and landed in the car park. He was greeted at the door of the pub by myself and was shown around the damage by landlord Chris Lugg and his partner.

He looked around and spoke with the workmen inside such as plasters and electricians. He was very interested to see how the bad storms had effected the community and offered his concerns.” The Prime Minister joked to Mr. Slater last year that he may be back to enjoy a pint with him once the reconstruction work was completed.