Welsh Tories demand PM’s support for a tidal lagoon
THERESA May will go into the Conservative Party Conference this weekend facing pressure from within her party to back the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon.
The Prime Minister is being urged by politicians at all levels of her party to give the £1.3bn sustainable energy-generating project a chance.
A letter to her urges: “We will never know the full extent of what can be achieved if we don’t get on and try.”
It argues the lagoon would cost each household in the UK “less than a pint of milk”.
The letter is signed by all 11 Welsh Conservative AMs, two council leaders, all three Welsh Tory MPs who don’t have Government roles and seven local group leaders.
The lagoon, which already has planning approval, will only go ahead if Department for Energy agrees to guarantee a price for the electricity it will generate.
Earlier this week Labour’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell pledged his party’s backing for the energy project, which developer Tidal Lagoon Power said would generate the equivalent electricity used by 155,000 households for 120 years.
The Conservative politicians are sending their letter to Ms May ahead of the start of the party’s UK conference in Manchester, which runs from Sunday. The four-day event concludes on Wednesday with the Prime Minister’s speech entitled
“Building a Country that Works”.
They write: “We’re now at the crucial phase of this project.
“We in the Welsh Conservatives look to your Government to seize the moment and give it your full support.
“We now have the opportunity to deliver together an incredibly popular major infrastructure investment here in Wales, and in so doing launch a world-leading industry that fuels a thriving and prosperous United Kingdom outside of the European Union.
“We will never know the full extent of what can be achieved if we don’t get on and try. The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon gives us that chance. We must be bold in our pursuit of a secure, reliable, clean and diverse power supply for today and for the generations to come. Tidal lagoons may be fundamentally different to all other energy projects, but with Brexit approaching we must have the confidence to negotiate the challenges and maximise the opportunities that come with change.”
The letter said the privately-funded lagoon could revitalise the Welsh economy with a new market for manufacturers alongside commercial opportunities in leisure and tourism. It goes on to cite the Government’s Hendry Review, which backed the lagoon and concluded it was “a ‘no regrets policy’, costing households less than the price of a pint of milk each year and in a single step, opens up the very real prospect of generating power from the UK’s abundant tidal resource at prices that can compete with, if not outperform, existing large-scale low carbon generators.”
And it argues that the lagoon could revitalise the Welsh economy, saying: “The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon can revitalise the Welsh economy with a new market for traditional Welsh manufacturers and industries, a new career path for students and workers alike, a myriad of new commercial opportunities in leisure, tourism and conservation, and a positive, far-sighted and forward-thinking statement to the world.”
Welsh party chairman Byron Davies, who backed the scheme during his tenure as MP, said in the letter that the lagoon “opens up the very real prospect of generating power from the UK’s abundant tidal resource at prices that can compete with, if not outperform, existing large-scale low carbon generators”.
Tidal Lagoon Power wants the Swansea lagoon to be a prototype for larger lagoons off Cardiff, Newport and Colwyn Bay, among others.
Earlier this month the company secured a grid connection for a Cardiff lagoon which, it said, would be capable of producing 10 times as much electricity as the Swansea one.
Investors backing the project warned in July that time was running out unless a decision was made soon. The scheme has its detractors, who are worried about its impact on migrating fish and where the rock to build the lagoon wall would come from.
Tidal Lagoon Power also needs a marine licence from Natural Resources Wales before any work can start on the four-year construction project.
Yesterday, Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths AM said she believed the UK Government was unlikely to give the lagoon a final sign-off.
But last week leader of Swansea council Rob Stewart said they would look at “alternative ways” of making the lagoon happen if the Government failed to make a decision on it soon.
Councillor Lyndon Jones, Swansea Conservative group leader, said: “This is something the Conservative group feel very strongly about and is a must for Swansea and has our full support.”