Swansea Bay

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Swansea Bay as seen from Aberavon towards the Mumbles View over Aberafan to Mumbles - panoramio.jpg
Swansea Bay as seen from Aberavon towards the Mumbles
Swansea Bay (1840) Swansea bay.jpeg
Swansea Bay (1840)

Swansea Bay (Welsh : Bae Abertawe) is a bay on the southern coast of Wales. The River Neath, River Tawe, River Afan, River Kenfig and Clyne River flow into the bay. Swansea Bay and the upper reaches of the Bristol Channel experience a large tidal range. The shipping ports in Swansea Bay are Swansea Docks, Port Talbot Docks and Briton Ferry wharves.

Contents

Each stretch of beach within the bay has its own name:

Oyster trade

Oyster fishing was once an important industry in Swansea Bay, employing 600 people at its height in the 1860s. However, overfishing, disease and pollution had all but wiped out the oyster population by 1920. In 2005, plans were announced to reintroduce the Oyster farming industry. [1]

Bracelet bay, Mumbles and Swansea bay, seen from the Mumbles Lighthouse Mum lslade sm.jpg
Bracelet bay, Mumbles and Swansea bay, seen from the Mumbles Lighthouse

Pollution

For the last two decades of the 20th century, the bay was blighted by pollution, partly from the surrounding heavy industry and partly from sewerage outlets being sited at inappropriate locations including the main one that was located just seaward of Mumbles Lighthouse. A pumping station inside the cliff adjacent to Knab Rock brought all of Swansea city's effluent in a raw form to this point. Adding to the problem was the natural current flow of the waters in the Bay which often did not move the polluted waters further out to sea. Ironically, the outgoing tide did not carry the raw sewage down the adjacent Bristol Channel, but instead cause it to be sucked in around the circumference of the Bay and only then out down the Channel. If not fully discharged on that tide, the incoming tide would then push the same effluent up the Channel, and once again circulate around the Bay. Efforts were made by the local authority to reduce the pollution in the Bay but care had to be taken to ensure the pollution did not move to the popular beach resorts in south Gower instead.

This original sewer outlet was finally made inactive in around 1996 following the construction of a pipeline which ran all the way back around the Bay following the line of the former Mumbles Railway as far as Beach Street, along the sea-side of the Maritime Quarter and through Swansea Docks to a new £90 million sewage treatment plant at Crymlyn Burrows near Port Tennant. From here a new outlet was made, extending further out to sea. As a consequence of the improvement these works have made, it is hoped that Swansea Bay will achieve Blue Flag Beach status. Aberavon beach was awarded Blue Flag status in December 2007. [2]

Power generation

Fossil

There is a GE-built gas-fired power station just inland at Baglan Bay. A second gas-fired power station, the "Abernedd Power Station" at Port Talbot, was approved for construction in 2011. [3]

Biomass plans

A new biomass power station was approved in 2014 for construction near the coast at Port Talbot. [4]

Tidal plans

Swansea Bay (along with the rest of the Bristol Channel) has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world. This offers a potential for electricity generation using tidal lagoons. Around 2015, a proposal was made by Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay Ltd for a tidal lagoon. [5] The tidal lagoon would be sited just south of the Queen's Dock between River Tawe and River Neath estuaries. This project was controversial, partly due to the amount of subsidy required to make the project viable and also because of the potential damage to an AONB and MCZ in Cornwall where Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay sought to re-open a disused quarry at Dean Point from which to source the rock for the lagoon. [6] [7] [8]

Wind plans

Construction of an offshore windfarm in the Bay was approved in 2004, [9] but construction was deferred owing to the costs involved. The windfarm was to have been sited at Scarweather Sands, about 5 km (3 mi) off the coast and visible from Porthcawl.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swansea</span> City and county in Wales

Swansea is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glamorgan</span> Historic county of Wales

Until 1974, Glamorgan, or sometimes Glamorganshire, was an administrative county in the south of Wales, and later classed as one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales. Originally an early medieval petty kingdom of varying boundaries known in Welsh as Morgannwg, which was then invaded and taken over by the Normans as the Lordship of Glamorgan. The area that became known as Glamorgan was both a rural, pastoral area, and a conflict point between the Norman lords and the Welsh princes. It was defined by a large concentration of castles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Talbot</span> Town and community in Wales

Port Talbot is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately eight miles from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south east of the town. It is one of the biggest steelworks in the world, but has been under threat of closure since the 1980s. The population was 31,550 in 2021, comprising about a fifth of the 141,931 population of Neath Port Talbot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neath Port Talbot</span> County borough in Wales

Neath Port Talbot is a county borough in the south-west of Wales. Its principal towns are Neath, Port Talbot, Briton Ferry and Pontardawe. The county borough borders Bridgend County Borough and Rhondda Cynon Taf to the east, Powys and Carmarthenshire to the north; and Swansea to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Briton Ferry</span> Human settlement in Wales

Briton Ferry is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales. The Welsh name may indicate that the church, llan, is protected from the wind, awel. Alternatively, Sawel may be a derivative of Saul, St Paul's earlier name. He once landed at Briton Ferry. An alternative Welsh name unused today is Rhyd y Brython, a direct translation of Briton Ferry. The Normans referred to the River crossing as La Brittonne and Leland in 1540 as Britanne Fery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aberavon</span> Human settlement in Wales

Aberavon is a town and community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a district of Port Talbot, covering the central and south western part of the town. Aberavon is also the name of the nearby Blue Flag beach and the parish covering the same area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neath and Tennant Canal</span> Canals in South Wales

The Neath and Tennant Canals are two independent but linked canals in South Wales that are usually regarded as a single canal. The Neath Canal was opened from Glynneath to Melincryddan, to the south of Neath, in 1795 and extended to Giant's Grave in 1799, in order to provide better shipping facilities. With several small later extensions it reached its final destination at Briton Ferry. No traffic figures are available, but it was successful, as dividends of 16 per cent were paid on the shares. The canal was 13.5 miles (21.7 km) long and included 19 locks.

The M4 corridor is an area in the United Kingdom adjacent to the M4 motorway, which runs from London to South Wales. It is a major hi-tech hub. Important cities and towns linked by the M4 include London, Slough, Bracknell, Maidenhead, Reading, Newbury, Swindon, Bath, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff, Port Talbot and Swansea. The area is also served by the Great Western Main Line, the South Wales Main Line, and London Heathrow Airport. Technology companies with major operations in the area include Adobe, Amazon, Citrix Systems, Dell, Huawei, Lexmark, LG, Microsoft, Novell, Nvidia, O2, Oracle, Panasonic, SAP, and Symantec.

Sandfields is a mainly residential district of Port Talbot, Wales. The area is located in South Wales on a narrow coastal plain between Mynydd Dinas and the sea. The M4 motorway, A48 trunk road and South Wales Main Line run nearby. The area includes a council estate, industrial areas and a seaside resort at Aberavon Beach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aberavon Beach</span>

Aberavon Beach, also known as Aberavon Sands, is a three-mile (5 km) stretch of sandy beach on the north-eastern edge of Swansea Bay in Port Talbot, Wales. With its high breaker waves, it is popular with surfers. Aberavon Beach was awarded Blue Flag status in December 2007 and features in the Good Beach Guide published by the Marine Conservation Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Cymru</span> Bus operator in Swansea and South Wales

First Cymru is an operator of bus services in South West Wales. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup with its headquarters in Swansea.

Swansea Docks is the collective name for several docks in Swansea, Wales, which are immediately south-east of Swansea city centre. In the mid-19th century, the port was exporting 60% of the world's copper from factories situated in the Tawe Valley. The working docks area today is owned and operated by Associated British Ports as the Port of Swansea, and the northern part around the Prince of Wales Dock is undergoing re-development into a new urban area branded as the SA1 Swansea Waterfront.

Crymlyn Burrows is an area in Wales to the east of Swansea city centre, and south of Crymlyn Bog. It is bounded by Jersey Marine Beach to the south and the River Neath to the east. The land west of Baldwin's Crescent falls within the City and County of Swansea and from Baldwin's Crescent eastwards falls within Neath Port Talbot. The area northwest of the Fabian Way contains a small settlement at Elba Crescent and Baldwins Crescent, and areas of industry and commerce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port of Port Talbot</span>

The Port of Port Talbot is located on the River Afan estuary next to Port Talbot Steelworks in the industrial town of Port Talbot, South Wales. The whole basin complex covers about 500 acres (2.0 km2), consisting of: an inner set of floating docks, developed from 1834 onwards; and an outer tidal basin, completed in 1970. Owned and operated by Associated British Ports, the tidal basin has the deepest berthing facilities in the Severn estuary and is one of only a few harbours in the UK capable of handling Capesize vessels of up to 170,000 tonnes deadweight (DWT), mostly for the import of iron ore and coal for use by nearby Port Talbot Steelworks.

The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway was a Welsh railway company formed to connect the upper end of the Rhondda Fawr with Swansea, with the chief objective of transporting coal and other minerals to Swansea docks. It was incorporated in 1882, but at first the connection to Swansea from Briton Ferry was refused.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A4241 road</span> Distributor road in Port Talbot

The A4241 Port Talbot Peripheral Distributor Road is a distributor road serving Port Talbot, Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baglan (electoral ward)</span> Human settlement in Wales

The Baglan electoral ward includes the communities of Baglan and Baglan Bay, in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. Baglan falls within the parliamentary constituency of Aberavon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coastline of Wales</span> Sea-bounded areas of Wales

The coastline of Wales extends from the English border at Chepstow westwards to Pembrokeshire then north to Anglesey and back eastwards to the English border once again near Flint. Its character is determined by multiple factors, including the local geology and geological processes active during and subsequent to the last ice age, its relative exposure to or shelter from waves, tidal variation and the history of human settlement and development which varies considerably from one place to another. The majority of the coast east of Cardiff in the south, and of Llandudno in the north, is flat whilst that to the west is more typically backed by cliffs. The cliffs are a mix of sandstones, shales and limestones, the erosion of which provides material for beach deposits. Of the twenty-two principal areas which deliver local government in Wales, sixteen have a coastline, though that of Powys consists only of a short section of tidal river some distance from the open sea. Its length has been estimated at 1,680 miles (2,700 km).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renewable energy in Wales</span> Overview of renewable energy in Wales

In 2019, Wales generated 27% of its electricity consumption as renewable electricity, an increase from 19% in 2014. The Welsh Government set a target of 70% by 2030. In 2019, Wales was a net exporter of electricity. It produced 27.9 TWh of electricity while only consuming 14.7 TWh. The natural resource base for renewable energy is high by European standards, with the core sources being wind, wave, and tidal. Wales has a long history of renewable energy: in the 1880s, the first house in Wales with electric lighting powered from its own hydro-electric power station was in Plas Tan y Bwlch, Gwynedd. In 1963, the Ffestiniog Power Station was constructed, providing a large scale generation of hydroelectricity, and in November 1973, the Centre for Alternative Technology was opened in Machynlleth.

References

  1. ↑ "Bay plans oyster trade revival". BBC. 22 February 2005. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  2. ↑ http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Environment&F=1&id=12706 newswales.co.uk
  3. ↑ "Multi-million pound Baglan power station still on hold". South Wales Evening Post. 15 February 2014. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ↑ Moses-Lloyd, Rachel (1 October 2013). "Biomass plant's £11m injection brings new jobs". South Wales Evening Post. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ "Project Planner - Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay". tidallagoonswanseabay.com. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  6. ↑ "Will Welsh eels scupper the craziest 'green' project ever?". Telegraph.co.uk. 18 April 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  7. ↑ "Swansea Bay tidal lagoon 'appalling value for money', says Citizens Advice". Telegraph.co.uk. 21 February 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  8. ↑ Robin Turner (17 February 2015). "Row over quarry plan for £850m Swansea Bay tidal lagoon - Wales Online". walesonline. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  9. ↑ "Victory: Offshore wind farm will be built in Wales". Greenpeace UK. 11 October 2004. Archived from the original on 20 March 2005.

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