Support quality, independent, local journalism…that matters
From just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member today
Delyth Jewell, who is the deputy leader of Plaid Cymru, is one of four regional Senedd Members serving the South Wales East region.
Wales’ landscapes always look glorious at this time of year. Come rain or shine (sadly, this July gave us more of the former), you can count on our beautiful mountains and valleys to put on a show for us.
We are a country that is rich in our natural resources, and our waterways and open fields offer tantalising opportunities for us to benefit from green energy, with all the investment and jobs that would go with it.
So it’s all the more maddening to think that so much of that potential is kept locked away from us. Because an entity called the Crown Estate owns 65% of our foreshore, our tidal riverbeds, along with most of our territorial waters, and over 50,000 acres of common land – and the proceeds all get passed to the UK Treasury and, indirectly, to the King.
In Scotland, the proceeds of the Crown Estate are used for the benefit of the people of Scotland – but not so in Wales. We don’t see a penny of it.
And the wealth we’re talking about here is profound. The value of the Crown Estate’s assets in Wales was valued at a staggering £600 million in 2020/21. Think what we could do with that money!
Before the Senedd went into summer recess, I led a debate on this topic, and I pointed out then that this story of Wales’ land being used to enrich far-away, wealthy landowners is a familiar refrain for us.
It is the story of every town and village in our valleys that paid the price of coal in blood and in dust, but never saw the wealth get invested in our nation.
Legend has it that the first million-pound cheque in the history of the world was signed in Cardiff Docks – but not a penny was spent in Wales: instead, it was shipped away with the coal that had been ripped from our earth by our grandfathers. And now today, another kind of wealth is hidden beneath our feet, in all those acres of land that so perversely do not belong to us. It is a scandal, and it cannot be allowed to continue.
When I led that debate in the Senedd last month, a majority of members voted in favour of Wales gaining these powers so that we can at last benefit from our own land, our own resources.
We might not be able to change the exploitation which Wales faced in our past, and the terrible way in which our miners were treated for the pittance of pay that they received. But we can demand the powers so that we can make our own future a brighter one – a future where Wales can lead the world in a new type of revolution, where instead of heavy, carbon-emitting industry, our green grasses and mountains and rivers can power a better tomorrow.
It’s time for Westminster to give us what is rightfully ours – so that we at last can benefit from the beautiful land we are so proud to call our home.
Support quality, independent, local journalism…that matters
From just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts.
Become a member today