£7m North Wales tidal lagoon plans sparks major debate

PLANS for a £7m tidal lagoon between Llandudno and Prestatyn have sparked a major debate.

Yesterday North Wales Live reported how the man at the helm of North Wales Tidal Energy hopes to find £50m of funding for an environmental impact assessment.

The project already has the backing of both Conwy and Denbighshire county councils, and Henry Dixon, the chairman of North Wales Tidal Energy, is targeting UK and Welsh government funds hoping the project will gain momentum.

Once the environmental impact assessment is complete, much larger pots of funding could be targeted.

Mr Dixon says an economic impact assessment by Wrexham’s Glyndwr University will bring 22,000 jobs to the area. He also claims the scheme will create enough power for every household in Wales.

But some readers were more convinced than others.

Thomas Richards wrote:

It’s a nonsense to rely on wind and nuclear power when the UK has some of the largest rises and falls of tide in the world. Tidal power in whatever form is very more consistent than wind will ever be, and far cleaner than nuclear.

Why the political classes have destroyed our power capability without replacing it with such measures is beyond comprehension.

Any investment in tidal power would produce a far greater reward than HS2.

 LLYS wrote:

It would make more sense to build the Severn barrage. If we are really serious a barrage across the Menai Straits and the rivers Dee and Conwy would be cheaper and more feasible

Steamnut wrote:

Even if this gets a serious hearing, by the time all of the various anti-agencies have had their say, the total cost of the project will be a lot more than £7 billion. When did any large projects ever come in on time and on budget? The Severn barrage and Swansea lagoon were going to cost less than this scheme. They had lots of great publicity with promises of jobs and energy generation for thousands of homes. In the end, they were turned down. I’m afraid I only see the obligatory masses of required consultants benefiting from this scheme. 

ThePickledLiver wrote:

The only jobs likely to come from this are the expected parasites – eco assessors, graphic designers, modellers, report writers, impact studiers… all the usual suspects. 

ScathingPen wrote:

 Don’t you just love these pie-in-the-sky projects that come along from time to time? They promise this, that and the other. This one seems to have the all too familiar taste to it. It looks so promisingly sweet on the outside….until you bite into it and find that it’s basically a lot of prettified air. 22.000 jobs….Really? Does anyone believe that? Could North Wales actually get that lucky? Could one small project generate enough electricity for every home in Wales? Could this idea be the holy grail for jobs, investment, green energy, a cleaner environment and a future for Wales and her people? The answer is blatantly obvious…NO, NO, NO. This idea has no legs, no body, no brain. It’s all could be, might be, perhaps, you never know. In other words pink cloud thinking. A ballerina’s tutu has more substance to it. Why am I so doubtful, so pessimistic? Because they promise too much, far too much for it to be real. Then comes the subject of money. They have none. Nothing in financial clout to get it off the drawing board. Wales has had enough of these fairytale projects. This is not her happy ending. 

Geedeebee added:

More concerned that if the tidal flow along the shoreline is reduced by the barrage, what impact will it have on the silt and debris coming out of the River Clwyd. Currently, it is dispersed by the wave action of the sea, especially during storm surges, if that “flushing” effect is lost, will we have beaches that are just mudflats that will be devoid of any tourist attraction? Even worse, what would be the result of the sewage works at Kinmel Bay carrying out one of their not infrequent discharges of raw sewage into the River Clwyd? These plans need careful examination, not just computer modelling, and we all know how good computer modelling was regarding Covid.