Calls for protection of sensitive Gwent Levels gathers cross party support

Emily Price 

A statement calling for the protection of a sensitive wetland landscape in southeast Wales has gathered cross party support in the Senedd.

Newport’s Gwent Levels are an inter-tidal zone of saltmarshes, mudflats and sands dubbed Wales’ Amazon due to the ecological riches found there.

John Griffiths – a former Welsh Government Environment Minister – has been at the forefront of calls for the landscape to be protected.

On Tuesday (November 5), the Labour MS for Newport East tabled a Statement of Opinion calling for the Senedd to preserve the unique biodiversity of the area.

It was supported by Plaid Cymru MSs for south east Wales Peredur Owen Griffiths and Delyth Jewell.

The network of watercourses provides a diverse range of habitats and has been marked as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) – a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the UK.

Historic

The historic development of the Gwent Levels from the Roman period has also led to its designation as a Landscape of Outstanding Historic Interest in Wales.

Mark Drakeford, the former First Minister of Wales, was a key figure in a campaign to save the area from an M4 motorway after he recognised it as a vital wildlife habitat.

The wildlife haven also hit the headlines earlier this year when Nation Cymru revealed a major donor to Vaughan Gething’s Labour leadership campaign had been convicted of dumping toxic sludge there.

Pressure

The trio of MSs behind the new statement have expressed concerns that the Gwent Levels is coming under increased pressure from large-scale applications for solar farms.

Planning Secretary, Rebecca Evans, says the Welsh Government takes into consideration, “the opportunities and the impacts proposed by solar developments”.

Speaking about the Gwent Levels in the Senedd last month, she said ambition to meet climate targets “doesn’t mean we are going to abandon policies for the protection of our most valuable environments”.

John Griffiths said: “The Gwent Levels is one of Newport and Wales’ most important assets. The unique biodiversity, wildlife and visual landscape which it affords the city and the wider area is priceless – and we must do all we can to protect it from
harm and irreversible change.

“There is a real risk that if one of these large scale solar farms is given the go ahead, it
will open the door for other similar developments, which would risk detrimentally changing the nature of the Levels and for the communities who live there.”

Peredur Owen Griffiths MS for South Wales East said: “No one can dispute the environmental importance of the Gwent Levels to Wales with its multiple Sites of Special Scientific Interest and its unique biodiversity.

“I believe the Welsh Government should make changes to planning policy to introduce a more coherent and uniform criteria for reaching final decisions on energy
developments, which would include ensuring genuine community benefits and placing restrictions on large-scale developments on good quality agricultural land.”

Value

South Wales East MS Delyth Jewell added: “The Gwent Levels are of tremendous value ecologically, and they house the habitats of many endangered species, including the Shrill Carder Bill, of which I’m species champion.

“Solar has an important role to play in renewable energy generation across Wales, but these projects shouldn’t be located in places that will lead to the destruction of sites of this nature.  Wales has declared both climate and nature emergencies: the ways in which we address the climate crisis shouldn’t exacerbate the other crisis in our natural world.”

A Statement of Opinion is published on the Senedd website but there is no Welsh Parliament decision on them.