Plans submitted to move sea defences to protect flood-hit village

Bruce Sinclair, local democracy reporter

Plans to relocate part of a flood-hit village’s shingle sea defences to protect local businesses and the main road have been submitted.

Peter Keeling of the campaign group Stand Up for Newgale (STUN) has submitted an application for permission to relocate a 570m section of the villages shingle bank defences 10m seaward, in order to protect local businesses and the A487 from flooding, and waves overtopping affecting access.

The application is currently being validated by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park officers ahead of details of the full application been made available, a spokesperson for the authority has said.

Newgale was hit hard by flooding following storms in early 2014 storms, and later by Storm Dennis in 2020.

David Cameron

In 2014 it was visited by Prime Minister David Cameron, as part of a tour of the UK to “learn lessons” following storms and flooding that year.

The main A487 road was closed for about 14 days after waves breached pebble defences that year.

In one of the flooding incidents that took place that year, a Richards Bros bus was stranded in floodwater and the pebble sea defences after it was hit by a high wave, leading to the rescue of around 10 passengers.

The same year, Pembrokeshire councillors were told a “managed retreat” of infrastructure and houses at Newgale was likely “over the next 60 years or so” but other work needs to be undertaken before then.

Bypass

Later, long-term plans emerged for a ‘bypass’ for Newgale which would “hug the valley” from Penycwm to a new roundabout near Roch.

In 2018, Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet voted in favour of a recommendation “that a highway link, tying into the A487 to the south of Bay View Farm at its northern end and east of Wood Farm at its southern end, retain the existing road for a reasonable period and undertake community adaptations, be adopted as the preferred route of the new road at Newgale to address coastal adaptation.”