News

Egnedol: ‘Proof will be in the pudding’

Published

10 years ago

March 8, 2016

A PUBLIC consultation was held by Egnedol on Thursday (Feb 18) in Milford Haven. The company promised to bring to the table an ambitious which it claimed would bring hundreds of millions of pounds into the Haven.

If Egnedol’s plans get the go ahead, the biomass plant at Blackbridge will be the biggest of its kind in the world. However, Egnedol has no track record of either building or running such a plant.

Mark Evans of Pembs TV conducted an exclusive interview with Egnedol’s director, Steve Whitehouse. The Herald pointed out that a far smaller plant in Newport is up and running and it has had numerous problems with health and safety breaches – even fire.

The Herald asked Mr Whitehouse, how Egnedol would succeed where others have failed.

Steve Whitehouse told us: “We’re using a very large South African company. They’re used to building biomass plants, and energy plants petro-chemical facilities around the world. It’s a large global company.

“We’re using them to provide us with a design, build, maintain, operate contract. So, they’ll be responsible for completing the details design of the plant, for building the plant, operating and maintaining it, using local people.

“They’ve just completed a large project in South Africa which we’ve checked the details of, so we’re quite confident. All we’re really doing is providing the facility, the cash and linking in with other technologies, so that they can come along and help us to operate this.

“So, it’s not our own staff actually, that’s going to be operating this facility. We’re going to be taking on local people who will be managed by a South African firm.”

The Herald also asked about the trees that are going to be used at the plant, which will be coming from plantations in Morocco and Greece. However, the website of the company says they’re still waiting for permission to plant in Greece and have no current plans to plant in Morocco.

When asked where the pellets will come from, Mr Whitehouse said: “We’ve got two options. They’re called option agreements – they’re legal agreements – with landowners in Greece and landowners in Morocco, so subject to getting permission and taking the project forward, we’ll be planting these plantations at that point.

“We’ll also be bringing in some wood from WDF, which 50% of our feed stock will come from that, which will be locally sourced, probably from Wales and other parts of the UK.”

When asked to explain about the emissions of the wood, as to whether or not they are chemically treated, Mr Whitehouse responded saying: “When we consume the wood, we consume it in a process called gasification, so the wood particles are heated up to a high temperature, which breaks down the molecules of the wood into smaller molecules, and we control that process so that we make methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen – things like that.

“Then that gas we’ve made is called a syngas – it’s a synthetic gas. We clean that, go through several cleaning processes, because, we have to get it to a very clean state in order to inject it into normal gas engines – big German gas engines.

“So, it has to be very very clean before it goes into that gas engine. So if you can imagine the gas engine is then consuming a clean gas, the emission from that goes from the engine, goes through a catalytic converter and goes through an oxidation process – the same as it would on a car, and then it goes up a stack.

“So, the actual emission is just a normal emission that you’d get from consuming gas. Just carbon dioxide, things like that.”

A statement by Gareth Chubb, Director of The Friends of the Earth was put to Mr Whitehouse. Mr Chubb had said that the people of Pembrokeshire won’t like being “guinea pigs” for an unproven technology with uncertain risks to human health, and said: “We’ve never seen a successful venture of this nature in the UK.”

When asked how he felt about those comments, he replied: “The technology choice is still under close review. We’ve chosen what we think is the best gasification technology that is currently available – it’s been through a very detailed due diligence process, with one of the largest insurance companies in the UK called Marsh, in London.

“All of their technical experts – which are world experts, they’re not just local UK experts – have looked at the process. Studies have been done by large UK and European consultancies; they’re all happy with the technology, and that’s why we can attract the funding.

“Marsh, actually, are happy to underwrite its process, underwrite its operation, time and all of those sorts of issues, so we’ve gone through a very rigorous due diligence process with the technology.”

Mr Whitehouse concluded: “You know, the proof will be in the pudding really, once we get funding and build it. That’s where the proof will be.”

The Herald spoke to Mayor of Milford Haven, Cllr Stephen Jospeh regarding Egnedol’s plans, to see what his thoughts were. He said: “It’s very difficult, but anything that can help the economy is good.

“We’ve got to look on the positive side. Of course, we’ve got to make sure it’s safe. There’s lots of different impressions, and I wouldn’t for a minute pretend I know who has conducted these studies, but I hope it works because the benefits are huge.

“We need to keep an eye on the environment and if it is how they say it is. However, just because it hasn’t worked for other people, doesn’t mean it won’t work for them.”

Crime

Swansea man dies weeks after release from troubled HMP Parc: Investigation launched

Published

11 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Tom Sinclair

A SWANSEA man has died just weeks after being released from HMP Parc, the Bridgend prison now at the centre of a national crisis over inmate deaths and post-release failures.

Darren Thomas, aged 52, died on 13 November 2025 — less than a month after leaving custody. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has confirmed an independent investigation into his death, which is currently listed as “in progress”.

Born on 9 April 1973, Mr Thomas had been under post-release supervision following a period at HMP/YOI Parc, the G4S-run prison that recorded seventeen deaths in custody in 2024 — the highest in the UK.

His last known legal appearance was at Swansea Crown Court in October 2024, where he stood trial accused of making a threatening phone call and two counts of criminal damage. During the hearing, reported by The Pembrokeshire Herald at the time, the court heard he made threats during a heated call on 5 October 2023.

Mr Thomas denied the allegations but was found guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to a custodial term, which led to his imprisonment at HMP Parc.

Parc: A prison in breakdown

HMP Parc has faced sustained criticism throughout 2024 and 2025. A damning unannounced inspection in January found:

Severe self-harm incidents up 190%
Violence against staff up 109%
Synthetic drugs “easily accessible” across wings
Overcrowding at 108% capacity

In the first three months of 2024 alone, ten men died at Parc — part of a wider cluster of twenty PPO-investigated deaths since 2022. Six occurred within three weeks, all linked to synthetic drug use.

Leaked staff messages in 2025 exposed a culture of indifference, including one officer writing: “Let’s push him to go tomorrow so we can drop him.”

Six G4S employees have been arrested since 2023 in connection with alleged assaults and misconduct.

The danger after release

Deaths shortly after release from custody are a growing national concern. Ministry of Justice data shows 620 people died while under community supervision in 2024–2025, with 62 deaths occurring within 14 days of release.

Short sentences — common at Parc — leave little time for effective rehabilitation or release planning. Homelessness, loss of drug tolerance and untreated mental-health conditions create a high-risk environment for those newly released.

The PPO investigates all such deaths to determine whether prisons or probation failed in their duties. Reports often take 6–12 months and can lead to recommendations.

A system at breaking point

The crisis at Parc reflects wider failures across UK prisons and probation. A July 2025 House of Lords report described the service as “not fit for purpose”. More than 500 people die in custody annually, with campaigners warning that private prisons such as Parc prioritise cost-cutting over care.

The PPO investigation into the death of Darren Thomas continues.

Crime

Woman stabbed partner in Haverfordwest before handing herself in

Published

12 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Court Reporter

A WOMAN who stabbed her partner during a drug-fuelled episode walked straight into Haverfordwest Police Station and told officers what she had done, Swansea Crown Court has heard.

Amy Woolston, 22, of Dartmouth Street in Milford Haven, arrived at the station at around 8:00pm on June 13 and said: “I stabbed my ex-partner earlier… he’s alright and he let me walk off,” prosecutor Tom Scapens told the court.

The pair had taken acid together earlier in the day, and Woolston claimed she believed she could feel “stab marks in her back” before the incident.

Police find victim with four wounds

Officers went to the victim’s home to check on him. He was not there at first, but returned shortly afterwards. He appeared sober and told police: “Just a couple of things,” before pointing to injuries on his back.

He had three stab or puncture wounds to his back and another to his bicep.

The victim said that when he arrived home from the shop, Woolston was acting “a bit shifty”. After asking if she was alright, she grabbed something from the windowsill — described as either a knife or a shard of glass — and stabbed him.

He told officers he had “had worse from her before”, did not support a prosecution, and refused to go to hospital.

Defendant has long history of violence

Woolston pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding. The court heard she had amassed 20 previous convictions from 10 court appearances, including assaults, battery, and offences against emergency workers.

Defending, Dyfed Thomas said Woolston had longstanding mental health problems and had been off medication prescribed for paranoid schizophrenia at the time.
“She’s had a difficult upbringing,” he added, saying she was remorseful and now compliant with treatment.

Woolston was jailed for 12 months, but the court heard she has already served the equivalent time on remand and will be released imminently on a 12-month licence.

News

BBC apologises to Herald’s editor for inaccurate story

Published

13 hours 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.