Your article on the new salt marsh at Cwm Ivy on Gower (Gŵyr) (‘It wasn’t pretty at first’: the Welsh wildlife haven born out of disaster, 10 May) was one-sided and contained many questionable statements.
The Gower peninsula (Penrhyn Gŵyr) is a beautiful area and strenuous efforts are made to keep it this way. Wales is rightly proud of achieving a footpath all the way round its coast. This project has sabotaged both. A rare area of freshwater wetland with a site of special scientific interest has been lost, and the Wales coast path has been blocked.
Before the winter of 2013, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and the National Trust (NT) planned active intervention to create a breach in the seawall in at least one location. Subsequent storm water weakened the seawall. Very minor work would have repaired it, but NRW/NT refused to make any repair and “cultivated” the weakness over a period of several months until the seawall actually breached. Despite having originally planned active intervention, they then stated that active intervention is contrary to NRW’s shoreline management plan and they would not support any remedial work.
Despite the NT having written to local residents reassuring them that the NT will provide a means to cross the breach, keeping the Wales coast path open, they have not done so. As this footpath is a right of way, the council accept their legal liability to keep it open. They are still working on a method to do this, with no assistance from either NRW or the NT. As they now have their new salt marsh, we see no reason why they should not assist plans by the council to restore access across the breach.
The NT own significant parts of the Gower coast and have successfully preserved it; however, contrary to the implication of your article, this episode is not their finest hour!
Neil Wilson
Local residents’ representative
Bob Denley
Footpaths officer, Swansea Ramblers
Guto ap Gwent
Chairman, Gower Society
