Theresa May needs to lead on lagoon
THERE will be cheers across south Wales if Theresa May announces that a deal has been agreed that will allow the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon to become reality.
The Prime Minister and her aides will have been thinking about her conference speech next Wednesday for months, and so will have the MPs and AMs gathering in Manchester this weekend.
They want some good news they can talk about on the doorsteps; when they are stopped by constituents in supermarkets, they want to be able to point to a policy announcement that will change their communities for the better.
Conservative AMs, a host of senior local government figures, the Welsh chairman and some MPs have signed a letter urging her to “seize the moment” and give the lagoon her support.
They describe the project as “incredibly popular”, arguing: “We must be bold in our pursuit of a secure, reliable, clean and diverse power supply for today and for the generations to come.”
The cancellation of electrification of the Great Western line from Cardiff to Swansea was a source of deep disappointment and frustration. There had long been speculation this phase of the project was to be dropped, but the decision not to confirm this until the last day before the summer recess smacked of cynicism.
Right now there are deep concerns about the lagoon. The independent government-commissioned Hendry review backed the project in January but ministers have yet to respond.
Labour has highlighted fears that investors will walk away unless the green light is given in the near future. There will be dismay, not just in Swansea, but throughout Wales if the lagoon goes the way of electrification.
Right at the moment when Wales needs to prepare for a future outside the EU there is the risk that the message goes out to the rest of the world that this is a nation where great projects are talked about but not delivered.
If decisions that are damaging to the economic development of Wales are taken out of sight in the deep recesses of Whitehall, this can only breed deep concern, splits and suspicion.
In recent years communities in south Wales have experienced fear about the future of the steel sector. And employees at the Ford plant in Bridgend, along with their families, will feel anxiety now that production of Jaguar Land Rover engines is due to cease three months earlier than expected.
Wales needs investment which will support a new generation of skilled jobs and provide infrastructure to drive growth.
Conservatives boast of the powers that have been devolved to the Assembly on their watch, but if life chances are to improve, this strengthening of the constitutional settlement has to be matched with economic revitalisation; those who signed the letter supporting the lagoon understand its true potential.
We can hope this letter gets the Prime Minister’s attention and wins the project her support. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2016 was 62.8%