“The redevelopment of Burry Port Harbour finally got underway yesterday” – so reported the Llanelli Star on 26 September. The various Environmental Assessments which have been carried out for the Harbour, as well as the Millennium Coastal Park, pointed out that the scheme would severely limit the exposure of mud at low-tide and thus diminish the feeding resource for waders such as Dunlin and Redshank. The required democratic planning process was applied to the proposals and the decision to carry out the scheme came down (not surprisingly) in favour of economic regeneration and against the biodiversity of the site.
In addition to the species dependant on inter-tidal mud, Burry Port Harbour provides a refuge for several plant species which no-longer grow anywhere else in the county although they were more frequent in the past. The exact locations of these plants have been pointed out to the Authority in their own commissioned Reports. Despite this, the most vulnerable (in a national context), the Small-flowered Catchfly (Silene gallica) narrowly missed extermination when the tarmac was laid to provide the new cycle-way on the northern side of the inner docks. It continues to hang-on just by chance, as the Authority’s mowing contractors are not instructed to treat it with special care. The plant is listed as a Priority Species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan because of its recent severe decline nationally, and Local Authorities have an obligation under national legislation to provide for the conservation and well-being of this and other such species. Carmarthenshire County Council is committed to, and, indeed, well advanced with, its own Local Biodiversity Action Plan and Small-flowered Catchfly is a species for which an Action Plan will be written in the next tranche. It will be ironic if the species is destroyed before the Plan is even written!
But the real reason for my concern, is that, when visiting the Harbour recently, I was dismayed to find that the access made to the tidal-gate construction site, past the Yacht Club House, had completely disregarded the presence of another rare species which is known to grow in the county only at this spot. I have monitored this small population of Dwarf Mallow (Malva neglecta) here since its discovery about ten years ago – last year there were thirteen plants. No regard had been taken of the Environmental Assessment which recommended that this, and other rare species, be safeguarded or transplanted. The drawing in the EA showing the location of the plants had been included in the contract documents but nobody had recognised the importance of emphasising that these plants needed special treatment. However, I was impressed by Mike Smith, the Millennium Coastal Park’s new Land Manager, who, after receiving my phone-call and being shown the locations of the rare plants, passed my concerns up the line to Park Officers and also to the engineers and contractors. I was then asked to meet the contractors on site who were more than willing to ensure the safety of the three mallow plants which had escaped. Other rare and scarce species of concern at Burry Port include Rock Sea-lavender (Limonium binervosum), Prostrate Toadflax (Linaria supine), Pale Flax (Linum bienne), Round-leaved Crane’s-bill (Geranium rotundifolium), Long-stalked Crane’s-bill (G. pyrenaicum), Sand Catchfly (Silene conica), Babington's Orache (Atriplex glabriuscula), Sea Clover (Trifolium squamosum), Knotted Clover (Trifolium striatum) and Sea Wormwood (Seriphidium maritimum). Am I now justified in being cautiously optimistic that the Authority will follow the guidelines in its own documentation by ensuring that biodiversity interests are not neglected in the face of future development?
