The Crown Estate own vast amounts of land in Pem­brokeshire. Mar­loes Sands, New­gale Beach and the two Ten­by beach­es to name a few. Pem­brokeshire is also some­where which will be affect­ed acute­ly by devel­op­ments of off­shore wind ener­gy- all with­in Crown Estate ter­ri­to­ry.

Wind ener­gy com­pa­nies gen­er­ate mil­lions of pounds for the Crown Estate through leas­ing Wales’ seabed. Local peo­ple have no con­trol or direct ben­e­fit of this rev­enue. Mean­while, Pem­brokeshire expe­ri­ences some of the high­est rates of child pover­ty in Wales. Com­mu­ni­ties and lan­guage have once again been bought to the brink by sec­ond homes.

These mat­ters are symp­to­matic of a wider break between ordi­nary peo­ple and land. We believe that devolv­ing the Crown Estates will bring peo­ple clos­er to both the eco­nom­ic and spir­i­tu­al pow­er that lies with­in these lands.

St. Davids was there­fore an apt place to hold the first pub­lic dis­cus­sion on the future of the Crown Estates. In March 2024, an expect pan­el with an audi­ence peo­ple from across Wales dis­cussed mat­ters relat­ing to the cur­rent pur­pose of the Crown Estate and the role it will play in the future. This was espe­cial­ly in rela­tion to Wind gen­er­at­ing assets on our seabeds, which will have a poten­tial­ly trans­for­ma­tion­al effect on the local economies of Pem­brokeshire and Angle­sey.

Pan­el Par­tic­i­pants

John Osmond Chair, for­mer Direc­tor of the Insti­tute of Welsh Affairs, with:

Nick Tune Com­mis­sion­er for Nation­al Infra­struc­ture Com­mis­sion for Wales

Rebec­ca Williams Direc­tor for Crown Estate, Wales

Tom Sawyer Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of Port of Mil­ford Haven

Beth Win­ter MP Labour MP for Cynon Val­ley