Village bypass and depot access route are decided (From Western Telegraph)

Village bypass and depot access route are decided

3:00pm Sunday 8th July 2012 in Milford Haven

The preferred route for a bypass of the village of Waterston and the development of new access to the ‘important’ former mine depot site at Blackbridge has been decided.

Plans for a new development at Blackbridge – believed to be a deep water terminal – are understood to have been key to the creation of the bypass and new access.

Pembrokeshire County Council’s cabinet approved the preferred routes on Monday.

Cabinet member for highways and planning, Rob Lewis, said the routes had been chosen following public consultation and were deemed to be the least detrimental to the environment.

The Blackbridge development site is owned by Pembrokeshire County Council and talk of a new terminal seems to have been reinforced by a local energy company.

Marine Energy Pembrokeshire, the company behind the tidal energy DeltaStream project off the coast of St Davids, says it is proposed that Milford Haven Port Authority will operate the new terminal, which will be around 700m long with at least 17m of depth at all times.

Marine Energy Pembrokeshire’s website describes it as “a unique development site, ideal as a manufacturing, assembly and marine/support base for offshore wind, wave and tidal flow technologies”.

At Monday’s meeting, council leader Cllr Jamie Adams said: “Blackbridge represents an extremely important economic opportunity for the county.

“As part of the benefit of the scheme, should funding come forward, the village of Waterston will notice a large alleviation with regards to the volume of traffic.”

He also said the county council-owned industrial estate nearby would also benefit from the process if it went ahead.