COCKLE FEARS UNFOUNDED
CLAIMS by politicians that the future of Welsh cockle gatherers is at risk as a result of UK Government inaction in securing access for them to export to the EU following Brexit are unfounded, according to industry leaders in South West Wales.
Llanelli’s MP and MS, Nia Griffith and Lee Waters, claim an EU ban which currently prevents shellfish caught in the UK being sold in the EU – unless it has gone through a process of mechanical purification first – is harming the industry.
The pair claim that, with only a limited capacity currently available for this purification to be done, many local cocklers and shellfish companies are suffering as a result.
However, bosses at both Parsons Pickles in Burry Port and at Selwyn’s Seafoods in Penclawdd, North Gower, say the claims being made by the politicians are unfounded as purification, a method known as depuration, is standard practice for them.
Colin MacDonald, managing director of Parsons Pickles, said his company serves the UK market and the issue of export problems doesn’t arise – but even if he was exporting, the cockles would be already depurated before being shipped.
Ashley Jones, of Selwyn’s Seafoods, has said the issue is being blown out of all proportion by politicians and that there isn’t a problem with exporting to the EU as the majority of producers have been depurating goods for many years.
MP Nia Griffith, who raised the issue directly with the Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart in Parliament, said: “Cockle gathering in both North and South Wales is not just a job but a way of life dating back generations.
“Gatherers who were already alarmed at the advice that they could not resume the export of shellfish until April, now feel not just forgotten but utterly betrayed to discover that UK Ministers knew all along that the EU ban on importing nondepurated UK shellfish would be indefinite.
“The UK Government really needs to take urgent action to help our cockle gatherers keep their vital export market and save this traditional industry from disappearing for ever.”
Llanelli MS Mr Waters
added: “We are now beginning to see the differences between the promises made over Brexit
and the reality.
“Fishermen were told if we left the EU Single Market they would benefit –
but as we can now see they will be worse off. The Conservatives need to answer for their failure to
deliver on their promises.”
Mr Jones, at Selwyn’s Seafoods, said in response to the politicians’ claims:
“Politicians haven’t come to talk to myself or any other local seafood producers as far as I know about these issues that they say are affecting the industry. We are carrying on with business as usual and I think politicians are using the shellfish issue as a bickering tool between themselves, when in reality the concerns they are raising are not in fact applicable.
“We clean all our cockles, they are depurated and then sent to Boston in Lincolnshire to be canned and then shipped to Spain.
“The politicians are scaremongering, which does cause worry to customers and those in the EU doing business with us.
“What raising all this will do is perhaps for those looking to start up in the shellfish business to take those extra steps to ensure their products are meeting standards, are cleaned and classified correctly before being exported.
“So, in that respect, it is making producers go the extra mile – but it’s something I and the firm have been doing for years.”
Mr MacDonald, managing director of Parsons Pickles, said: “Our cockles are picked in the Burry Inlet and sold within the UK so the exporting doesn’t affect us, but even if we were to export, the cockles would be cleaned and cooked before being sent to the EU, so I really don’t know where the MPs are coming from with their
argument.”
A UK Government spokesman said: “We see no scientific or technical justification for the EU’s change of position regarding the export of live bivalve molluscs from Class B waters and, as we have said, these developments will be of grave con
cern to both the UK and the EU businesses that rely on this trade.
“We’re seeking urgent resolution with the European Commission and we have offered to provide reasonable additional reassurances to demonstrate shellfish health, on the understanding the
Commission must recognise the existing high standards and history of UK-EU trade. We expect to hold a meeting with the Commission soon.”
Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart, MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, was asked to comment.
A NEW housing estate and a care home could be built next to Llanelli’s Parc y Scarlets stadium.
A company called Padda Care Homes Ltd has submitted plans for the former Ysgol yr Ynys site comprising 33 houses and a three-storey 84-bed care home.
The 1.4-hectare Llwynhendy plot is to the east of the stadium and surrounded on three sides by Ynys Las, Maes-ArDdafen Road and Heol Hen.
A planning and design statement submitted on
behalf of Padda Care Homes said the land was earmarked for residential development under Carmarthenshire Council’s development plan.
The 33 houses proposed are two detached, three terraced and 28 semis, all facing Ynys Las. They would include six social housing properties.
The care home, meanwhile, would be set back from Ynys Las and include gardens facing south-east and south-west.
Access to the care home and the houses would be from separate points on Ynys Las, with care home deliveries from Maes-ArDdafen Road. Another access could one day be created through to the south to another area of vacant housing land.
A pre-application consultation has been carried out, which prompted three responses, including from an objector who felt the proposed houses were ugly and that more trees should be planted around them.
A supporter said it was about time the land was brought back into use.
Traffic and travel surveys commissioned by the applicant said the surrounding roads could satisfactorily accommodate the extra traffic, and that many journeys to and from the site would be by foot, bike or bus.
Llwynhendy councillor Sharen Davies said the scheme would be good for jobs and increasing the housing supply, but that parking in the area had been the cause of complaints for years and would need to be assessed in more detail.
“That’s a major concern for myself,” she said.
A WOMAN who used to spend nearly every day of the week in bed unable to get up has transformed her life by shedding a third of her body weight.
Liz Murphy, from Tumble in Carmarthenshire, said the weight piled on after she got married while still a teenager and started working in her new husband’s chippy.
Having never learned to cook, she found herself deep frying everything and before long she had tipped 18 stone on the scales.
With two young children, Liz was desperately unhappy. She knew something had to change, especially as her health deteriorated so much, she spent seven days a week in bed with migraines and lacking energy.
She couldn’t even bring herself to get out of the car when she dropped her two daughters off to school.
“I was trapped,” said Liz, who now works as a fulltime slimming consultant.
“Not just trapped with poor health but in my marriage too. I felt there was no way out, I was alone with my children.”
That was several years ago and marked her first attempt at getting to a healthy weight. In 2016 Liz went through a divorce and for a while had to find somewhere else to live with two young children in tow.
She successfully managed to lose nine stone by attending her local Slimming World group and just eating better. Her first challenge was to learn how to cook and not rely on the fryer.
“I got married at 17,” she said. “So I just never learned how to cook. The only thing I could make was a fruit salad, which had no cooking involved at all.”
At the time she would have severe migraines which rendered her bed bound but she never linked it to her weight.
“I couldn’t walk anywhere because everything ached,” she added.
“But I wanted to be a healthy mum to my two daughters, who were younger then, and I wanted to know I was going to be around a bit longer as they grew up.”
Slowly but surely, with the support of her group at Slimming World, Liz lost the weight and even signed up to Couch to 5K and started running.
“That was just incredible,” she said.
“If anyone had told me I would have been running, I would have laughed at them.”
As the weight came off, she regained her confidence and started feeling good about herself. She even started working for Slimming World full time.
An old friend from school got in touch and remarked how good she looked and before long, they were a couple and on Christmas Eve 2019, they got engaged.
But spending more and more time in the car as a Slimming World consultant, she found herself living off meal deals from petrol garages and old habits crept back in. Then, at the start of 2020, her mum died suddenly and before she knew it, she’d put all the weight back on.
“When my mum died, that was when I struggled,” she said. “Food was my emotional crutch.”
“I was 39, with two young children and I just knew I had to change something,” she said.
Although the wedding has been postponed due to Covid, Liz committed to a new healthy lifestyle all over again.
“At the start of lockdown, I thought to myself I can come out of this nine stone heavier or I can lose weight,” Liz said.
Liz is now at a much healthier weight of 13 stone but still has a few more pounds to shift, she said. But the Slimming World development manager is happier and healthier than she has ever been.
“Looking back at pictures of myself when I was at my heaviest, I feel sorry for myself – I wish I could give myself a hug,” she added.