WE’LL GET MARINA FIRMS BACK ON THEIR FEET
First Minister’s pledge to storm-hit businesses as he views havoc
CARWYN Jones has promised to “help businesses get back on their feet” after seeing for himself the extreme damage caused to livelihoods and boats at Holyhead marina.
The First Minister, on a tour of North Wales where he also announced a £2.8m tourism investment in Holyhead (see panel, left), visited the marina at Holyhead where in the early hours of March 2, Storm Emma wreaked her devastation smashing up over 80 boats and pontoons - causing millions of pounds worth of damage.
He met with the owners of the privately-run marina, as well as port authorities and council representatives to hear how the salvage operation was going and to offer the Welsh Government’s help.
This was Mr Jones’ first visit to the marina following on from Environment Minister Lesley Griffiths and he said it was “important” to see for himself.
He said: “A lot of credit to all the people who have worked so hard to start to clear the marina but it is difficult to imagine what the weather was like at the time but you can see the effect of it.
“What we can’t do is to cover losses that haven’t been insured. If people chose not to insure or to under insure, then that is a matter for them but what I want to do is to see what we as a Government can do to help these businesses that have been affected and see what kind of package we can deliver.”
Mr Jones said: “We want to help these businesses to get back on their feet as quickly as possible - including the fishing fleet here and help them through this difficult time.
“Looking at it, you can’t credit the fact that the swell came in the direction that it did. The marina looks very sheltered and these were undoubtedly freak weather conditions and obviously there needs to be a look at how that happened.”
Marina owner Edward Hughes said: “We’ve had bigger winds but never witnessed waves this big before. We had a five metre swell and The waves were on top of that. The access bridge to the pontoons was going up and down by 20 feet. That said nothing was going to survive. All the big boats and trawlers outside the marina at Porth y Felin came off their moorings. The Victorian-built breakwater which has been here for hundreds of years was damaged and the main promenade on Newry beach - you can drive a bus underneath the hole in it.”
Mr Jones was told that the waste fuel from the boats which flooded the marina has now been reduced to around 1 per cent while the polystyrene from the wrecked boats was the “big issue”.
Anglesey Council’s environment portfolio holder, also called Carwyn Jones, insisted that the council had spent a lot of its resources in cleaning up the damage and that it was imperative to help businesses and the fishermen to get back on their feet.