Saying no to the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon was not a failure of ambition

The failure of ambition and vision wasn't refusing the deal on the table. The failure of ambition and vision was refusing to find a way to make it work. The entire response from Whitehall to the very idea of tidal power in any form has been "what do we need to say to make this go away".

The flaw in this article by David TC Davies can be seen in what he has written.  He says "Hinkley Point C was agreed at £92.50 per megawatt hour for a 35-year contract." That is where a nuclear power station only has a 35 year productive life prior to decommissioning. Not so with a tidal barrage as we can assume the tides will still work beyond 35 years. It's also the case the taxpayer picks up the bill for nuclear waste and decommissioning, no so with a barrage. The investment horizon of the British Government is also at fault, a false calculating payback within a few decades. Sad it would be if the likes of Brunel had such a restricted horizon. 

This is just a defence of austerity and a reluctance by labour and tory politicians to invest. Tax payers do want big successful projects, especially in the energy sector to secure energy independence, not having us at the reliance of international corporations which don't pass on the savings to UK customers. Tax payers just want them to be managed by competent, uncorrupted politicians that don't hand out contracts to companies they and their mates are invested in. I think that sums up unionist neoliberalism nicely, seeking all the praise but none of the responsibility for the companies that go boom but inevitably go bust after passing on the bill to taxpayers yet again.

I don't often agree with a tory, but this article is spot on, it was (and is still) an utterly ridiculous plan. What this article doesnt really touch on, are the massive environmental effects of this awful plan. Our beautiful bay would have been utterly destroyed, FOREVER. Fish stocks wiped out, 3 sandy beaches being turned into mudflats, the Ecosystem of the bay completely destroyed, just for the far-off foreign fatcats to reap their Dividends, while the local population have the highest priced electricity, anywhere in the world, ever. Utter fantasy!!!

Many of the issues on the delivery of infrastructure projects have not been addressed. The whole of the rail industry knew Crossrail would go over-budget, the consultants had not written a basic interface management plan and ALL Network Rail staff boycotted Crossrails strategy meeting as nobody wanted to be associated with that project. Hinkley Point C has caused wage inflation across the UK construction sector by paying staff industries plus fifty percent; so staff go to whichever contractor pays the highest day rate. HS2 has done the same. Also then Shropshire County Council could not retain its’ procurement staff or suppliers as HS2 supply-chain was paying high wages. We do not need a communist style planning system, but better coordination of major project spend is needed. These issues need to be resolved before new projects are started. The logical department to do this is the Department for Transport, but they have a framework of 35 suppliers for economic advice and no Intelligent Client capability.

“Serious government requires something more hard-headed: clear figures, and a proper understanding of who ultimately carries the risk and the cost.” Now apply this logic to all energy/grid projects in Wales. Who ultimately pays? (Consumers, via bills) Who benefits? (Developers)

There is.no such thing as "tax payers money". Tax is primarily a means of controling inflation not raising income. Viewing this project only by the cost of electricity it produces is wrong. It's essentailly a large research and development project in green energy. The government could find the money for it as they always do for war and the bailing our the banking sector.

Inclined to agree that the figures probably didn't add up, but surely more use of tidal energy should be investigated with our huge coast, We need wind solar and tidal for the future.

Honestly projects like this should be done by the state and owned by the state and the government should be on the hook for it. Which government, well The Senedd and Westminster can fight over it, either that or it should be purely private and Westminster (or whoever) should supply an agreed new development strikeprice... say 95.00 per megawatt hour, this would apply to all projects across the spectrum. (Lets see how many nuclear powerstations vs wind turbines we get!) Ideally this money should be going to The Senedd, which is why it should be handled in house, but if a private contractor wishes to come along and foot the bill entirely themselves then that's up to them. The government needs to be ambitious and innovative and it needs to try things out. Sometimes things will fail, sometimes they provide cheap clean energy for decades. Politicians are far far too happy to spaff money up the wall on vanity projects (HS2 springs to mind, AJAX tank another (given its track record), among others) that provide extremely minimal ROI if not a net loss.

The Tories have zero ambition for Wales. I find it outrageous that David TC Davies states otherwise. As Welsh Secretary he said no to more devolution. No to power over our criminal & youth justice system. No to policing powers. No to the devolution to create March 1st a national bank holiday to celebrate Saint David/Dewi Sant citing there would be cross border confusion but advocated a bank holiday to celebrate the investiture of King Charles. And less he forget. The Swansea Bay tidal lagoon was scrapped after a six year consultation with his then Tory government citing cost and value for money but spent an initial £36.5 billion on HS2, put the infrastructure build as an England & Wales build robbing us of billions in consequential, only later to scrap the project halfway through. And as of 2025 has cost a purported £60 billion, some say it could exceed £80 to £90 billion. Some value for money, eh David. So when I hear this compulsive liar make these claims find it hilarious that this arrogant little Englander spent his time before Wales voted for devolution in 1997 campaigning to abolish the Assembly, during the referendum, after he became an AM. And when he left the Senedd to become an MP and government minister kept on undermining Wales and devolution before being kicked out of office. Best he kept his big mouth shut for once.

I read about the initial proposal in Private Eye forwarded by Mark Shurrock and amongst other things how the rocks for the lagoon were going to come from a quarry in Devon owned by ...Mark Shurrock. I think he was trying to make a deal to line his own pockets https://www.cads2015.com/?wysija-page=1&controller=email&action=view&email_id=63&wysijap=subscriptions