Tag: Pembrokeshire

The Parasites Keep a-Coming

On By JacIn Climate, Colonialism, Globalism50 Comments

I hadn’t planned this but you’re reading it because it illustrates what’s happening over much of Wales. Though this case is a bit of an oddity in that it’s official but there’s no info beyond the bare bones.

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LLANTEG

Our story focuses on the hamlet of Llanteg, Pembrokeshire; pinned in the centre of the map below. The reason for going there is that certain companies are planning a ‘Green Energy Park’ and a ‘400kV substation’.

How do I know? Well, someone sent me various documents from which I’ve extracted the panel you see below. It comes from the latest update of the Transmission Entry Capacity (TEC) register produced by the National Systems Energy Operator (NESO).

If you scroll down to the second sheet of the register you’ll see what I’ve clipped for you below. Both entries link to the – non-existent – ‘Llanteg 400kV Substation’.

The person who sent me this information keeps abreast of these matters, but this was all new to him.

I tried an internet search for this project, but turned up nothing apart from a vague reference to Community Energy in Pembrokeshire (CEP). Here’s the website, and here the Companies House entry.

Here’s the Llanteg village website.

As Llanteg is outside the national park I went to the council website and checked through planning applications. But drew a blank.

Next, I wrote to the council planning department, and here’s part of their reply:

I am having trouble locating any information regarding the two highlighted in your screenshot. Please can you provide a site map for me to investigate further?

Mmm. Clearly, the council knows nothing.

As I say, the only references I found to renewable energy were all small-scale, ‘community’-type ventures. But I suspect what we’re looking at is very commercial. I say that due to the names linked with the projects in the panel above.

So who are the companies named on the NESO document?

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LLANTEG GREEN ENERGY PARK

The ‘Green Energy Park’ is in the name of NP SPV30 Ltd. And that outfit’s been registered with Companies House since July 2023. One of a string of numbered companies, now up to 50. (Maybe more by the time you read this.)

One of those companies that converted into a named project was NP SPV 31 Ltd, which is now Gwyddelwern Energy Ltd. This being the name of a village on the A494 between Corwen and Rhuthun. So let’s detour briefly and look into it.

Ultimate ownership of this project is with:

Heading back down to Pembrokeshire, ultimate ownership of NP SPV30 Ltd, the Llanteg Green Energy Park project, rests, via Natpower UK Ltd, with Mr Fabrizio Zago, an Italian living in Monaco.

Looking at the directors for the Llanteg Green Energy Park project, we see two names; a British subject with an Italian name (Sommadossi) who I’m satisfied is an associate of Zago, and an American.

This American, Benjamin Aaron Ben Tre, took up 40 directorships on May 1 this year. All linked with Natpower and all using the same Mayfair address.

More interestingly, perhaps, Ben Tre was involved with Stefano Danilo Massimo Sommadossi in other companies a few years back. I would guess the reason these companies are listed separately is because the name is spelled Ben Tré.

Let’s start with Coincident Energy Ltd (10.02.2016 – 17.09.2019). No money ever went through the books, but then again, this company was controlled from the British Virgin Islands.

Next up in chronological order is Influence Power Ltd (10.02.2016 – 17.09.2019). Another company with nothing in the pot, and controlled by Coincident Energy.

The third company used as its address a flat overlooking the Thames in Wandsworth, presumably leased by Sommadossi, who was then still an Italian citizen.

The company was called QMobility Ltd (03.01.2020 – 21.12.2021). It began life with directors Sommadossi, Ben Tré, another Italian named Stefano Madeddu, and a second American by the name of Jonas Lauren Norr.

This is interesting. Norr seems to be based at Miami Beach. And an internet search suggests he founded a company called Ethos Investments. Which is the company Ben Tré’s Linkedin page says he’s still working for. Here’s Norr’s info from Linkedin.

Anyway, at the end of its brief life, despite filing no accounts, and apparently doing nothing, Sommadossi and Ben Tré had over ten million QMobility shares.

To conclude where we started this section, with Natpower, and after seeing names like Zago, Sommadossi, Madeddu, you will not be surprised to learn that this outfit is, to all intents and purposes, an Italian company.

Building a ‘Green Energy Park’ in Pembrokeshire.

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E R PROJECT DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LTD

I couldn’t find a website for this company, the one named in connection with the 400kV substation, but here’s the Companies House entry. It was Incorporated October 14, 2022. Based in Marlborough, Wiltshire

The two named directors are: Harry Marcus George Lopes, who’s British; and American Giovanni Rossario Maruca. When you flip to ‘significant control’ you see the name Eden Devco (UK) LLP.

There are 23 companies registered at this luxury holiday accommodation site, but Eden Devco seems to be the only one with assets. Though nothing in the most recent accounts explains these assets.

This company has Lopes and Maruca as members, with these two now rubbing shoulders with a couple of English aristos and some other interesting names.

Including two US companies, one in Florida, the other in New Jersey. It’s the one in New Jersey I wish to focus on, because a company with that name has cropped up on this blog before.

The name is Belltown Eden Ventures Corp. This company controls the voting rights over Eden Devco (UK) Ltd, and ultimately the Llanteg substation. And although giving a New Jersey address it’s governed by the laws of the State of Delaware. I assume that’s because Delaware is ‘business friendly’.

Belltown is also an investor in land destined for renewable energy projects. We target property with strong fundamentals and proximity to power infrastructure in our core markets.

∼

The other Belltown – in the form of Belltown Power of Bristol – is one of the three companies (we know of) waiting to desecrate the Elenydd, the unspoilt country east of Lampeter, which I wrote about in November 2023, in The Road To Hell.

Where I explained that when you trace back ownership of Belltown Power you reach Blackmead Infrastructure c/o The Foresight Group.

Establishing the ultimate ownership of Blackmead Infrastructure is not straightforward. The first step is easy enough, it’s Averon Park Ltd. But the Companies House entry for Averon Park shows no one with significant control.

Though a hell of a lot of shares have been allotted lately. While the latest confirmation statement from Averon Park (30.06.2025) tells us Foresight Fund Managers is in control.

Is that 1.56 billion shares, am I reading it right?

Foresight has an office in Cardiff, and recently appointed Phil Sampson to manage its £130 million Investment Fund for Wales. Aren’t you grateful?

Anyway, the long and winding road eventually takes us to Guernsey. And once you’re on that island, who knows who owns what?

∼

This is frustrating, but it looks as if there are two companies using the Belltown name. One in Bristol, with a windfarm project in the Elenydd, that traces to the USA; the other in Wiltshire, planning a substation in east Pembrokeshire, linked to the Foresight Group and Guernsey. Both in the ‘renewables’ and ‘natural capital’ rackets.

But there’s no obvious connection. Unless you know different?

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CONCLUSION

Once again, I find myself reporting companies from God knows where planning lucrative projects in Wales. What makes Llanteg perhaps unique is that no one seems to know anything about it!

Yet the fact that these entries are on the TEC register tells us an agreement has been reached. But who are the parties to the agreement? Have these companies done a deal with a private landowner? Or with the ‘Welsh Government’?

Are there any more Llantegs in the pipeline?

Whatever the answer to those questions, the map below explains why Llanteg is attractive. The black lines you see are carrying power from Pembroke power station, first to the cities and towns of the south, and then to England.

Which serves to remind us that – if the capacity is there – then any number of new projects can link up to transmission lines.

And that applies to the new lines planned to run through the Tywi and Teifi valleys on their way to Llandyfaelog; also the line north, then north east, and over the border to Lower Frankton in Shropshire.

In fact, I predict these new pylon runs will act as magnets for every eco-shyster between Bristol and the British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg and Lower Manhattan.

To the point where rural Wales, outside of national parks, will resemble a post-apocalyptic wasteland of steel and fibreglass, erratically producing electricity Wales doesn’t need, and providing us with no benefits whatsoever.

Interspersed of course with areas being ‘rewilded’ by charities and environmental groups that took corporate funding as payment for destroying Welsh farming and a way of life.

And all the while, the clown show in Corruption Bay, its propagandists and apologists, promise us ‘local ownership’ and ‘community benefits’.

Those lying bastards that have been selling us down the river for 26 years.

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2025

WWF War On Farmers Takes To The Sea!

On By JacIn Colonialism, Environmentalism, Farming, Globalism, World Economic Forum, WWF29 Comments

In a sense, this piece follows on from last week’s post about Plaid Cymru betraying Welsh farmers with absurd claims that agriculture alone is responsible for the pollution in our rivers.

We’ll meet again that Nazi-origined, anti-humanity crew of Globalist schemers in WWF, but also some interesting new faces. First, we head to Pembrokeshire.

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LAVERBREAD TYCOONS

When preparing last week’s piece I was sent information about a company down west in the seaweed business. The name I was given was Câr y Môr. I was told this outfit returned a loss of £278,000 on a turnover of just £600k.

Which my source – with a lifetime in business himself – assured me was unsustainable. How did this company stay afloat? (I shall try to avoid the water-themed analogies, metaphors and allusions.)

So I went digging. Which wasn’t easy. The Companies House website told me it’s registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. By translating the company name into English you turn this up.

Now you’d think it would be a simple matter to go to the FCA website, type in RS008172, and Robert would become your cousin’s father. But no, it’s never that simple on the FCA website.

Through a combination of luck and persistence I eventually found For the love of the sea Ltd Registration Number: 8172. Here are the accounts confirming the parlous financial situation.

That’s despite receiving, as this piece from February 2022 tells us, a £300,000 grant from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. There’s talk of a bridging loan, which may explain the loan in May 2024 from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

This big charity was mentioned in last week’s piece as a major donor to the WWF, RSPB, Soil Association, The Rivers Trust, and many others on the eco-shyster merry-go-round.

But then there was another loan taken out this year with NatWest Social & Community Capital.

And it’s difficult to get a handle on exactly who’s involved, and what other companies may be under the Câr y Môr banner, or trading under different names.

For example, I found Solva Seafoods. Which proclaims it’s ‘Part of Câr y Môr’.

This Guardian article from November last year helps explain what’s going on, and why the money is so readily available. The magic words are, “environmental awareness” and “vegan“.

I’ve brought my family here to explore the “seaweed revolution”. A happy combination of increased environmental awareness and more people seeking vegan alternatives has taken seaweed mainstream.

Another company mentioned in the newspaper article was the Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company Ltd. Which also seems to be linked to Câr y Môr.

It’s had a loan from the Development Bank of Wales. Perhaps to buy a pub. For the company is now registered as The Old Point House Ltd and uses that address.

And other funding from the National Lottery Community Fund.

Clearly, seaweed has gone “mainstream” for Guardian writers. And that’s good enough for the readers of that newspaper who infest our political class and major funding bodies.

Which gives us small-scale operations in Pembrokeshire, which may or may not be economically viable, at the front of the queue for funding because they tick the right boxes.

But even though seaweed gets the publicity I can’t help think that the real money may not be in seaweed but in crabs and lobsters. How does lobsters being boiled alive sit with the comrade vegans at the WWF and elsewhere?

Are our crustacean friends expendable in the service of the bigger scam?

But enough from Pembrokeshire – lovely as she is – for I think all this talk of seaweed is drawing bigger fish. (Sorry!).

UPDATE 22.10.2025: Someone directed me to this funding which, although it mentions seaweed, seems to confirm my suspicion that the real business is crabs and lobsters.

This source even suggests that these crustaceans are bought in and sold as local – with a 100% markup!

There have been other grants, one from ‘Welsh Government‘ via the WCVA.

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SEAGRASS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

The article below appeared in last Saturday’s Western Mail. (Here in pdf format.) It’s basically about the threat of pollution to seagrass on the coast of Llŷn.

It’s cleverly written, pushing the right buttons and worded to evoke a positive reaction. There’s psychology applied here. I’m surprised no one takes credit for it.

But maybe we can hazard a guess at the writer. As I hope to explain.

You’ll see I’ve marked it with numbers. So let’s go through them.

1/ “Five-year-old Aled” is a classic way to start an article in order to get the reader on your side. What hard-hearted bastard would not be receptive to what follows an intro like that?

2/ “Climate change“. The foundation scam upon which the superstructure of further lies, sleaze, political capture, corporate greed and behavioural control is built.

3/ Who calculates these ‘losses’? Answer: The same enviro-shysters seeking to profit from putting them right.

4/ Cymru Can is yet another dollop of Future Generations bullshit.

5/ The ubiquitous Derek Walker, Future Generation Commissioner for Wales. He featured in last week’s piece. His predecessor Sophie Howe is now on the books at Bute Energy, paving the way for wind turbines, pylons, and God knows what else.

6/ The Future Generations legislation is now a decade old. Yet no other country on Earth has decided to follow the lead. Strange, that. Or maybe not.

7/ It was inevitable that we’d encounter WWF Cymru, which also had a big part in last week’s presentation on Plaid Cymru betraying Welsh farmers.

8/ North Wales Wildlife Trust has received £328,850 from ‘Welsh Government’ contracts in the past 5 years; £10.73m in grants.

9/ Project Seagrass is new to me. I shall have more to say anon.

10/ Lottery funding, another feature we saw in last week’s piece.

11/ ‘Welsh Government’ – i.e. thee and me – will be paying for a seagrass project officer.

12/ Article mentions ” . . . nutrient run-off from agriculture and sewage“.

13/ But the WWF spokesperson, Penny Nelson, believes it’s solely due to, not just farming, but “intensive agriculture“. Yeah, lay it on thick, girl. The same lie we heard from the stage at the Plaid Cymru conference, and I reported in last’s week’s offering. She’s also a trustee at another coastal charity – in sea-girt Leicestershire.

14/ Colouring books from Uncle Carl! What next – drag shows?

15/ “Spreading stories“. When I was a boy, this meant fibbing. Making things up. And this is certainly what environmentalists do.

16/ Where exactly are these “disadvantaged coastal areas“?

17/ “More funding“. How much do you want? Because Wales is a rich country, and we have no pressing priorities.

18/ Did we mention “future generations“?’

19/ Here’s Derek Walker, again.

20/ Ah! the “climate emergency“. (See 2 above.)

21/ In case you missed it – the “climate emergency!”

Clearly, WWF Cymru, with seagrass and ‘the marine environment’, and with ‘Welsh Government’ support, is opening another front in the war against Welsh farmers. This time for polluting our coastal waters.

And yet . . . we earlier read about a thriving aquaculture in Pembrokeshire, which is a largely rural county, with a lengthy coastline, and many, many farms. Strange, that.

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SEAGRASS NEEDS INVESTORS

So what is this Project Seagrass? Here’s the website. To start with, it’s a registered charity. It was launched in 2015 but only since 2020 has the money rolled in.

Which coincides with the arrival as a trustee of Rosslyn Barr. Here’s her Linkedin profile. (Where she’s Rosslyn Clowe.) We see she’s Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Despite claiming to be active in countries around the world I was surprised to see that Seagrass Project’s given address is on the Brackla Industrial Estate, Bridgend. How long has it been there, I wonder? And who’s paying the rent?

Project Seagrass is of course a non-political organisation . . . well, until you see that it doesn’t use the X (Twitter) social media platform. Which tells you a lot.

Here’s a fuller profile of Rosslyn Barr-Clowe from the Project Seagrass website. But none of what we’ve read so far tells us her day job. Did she retire early? Win the Lottery?

Was she working in Malta for 6 years with Sharklab Malta?

If you scroll down on Linkedin you’ll see that the last ‘day job’ was with Royal London, where she worked for over 10 years, until eight years ago. Her last post was Head of Change Transformation (Intermediary).

But did she really leave the Royal London Group? I ask because I found this in a search, dated May this year. It links Rosslyn Barr with the Royal London Group. I found it on the Emphasis website, a company that helps people improve their writing skills, offering various courses, one shown below.

Is / was she a tutor with Emphasis? Did she write the piece that appeared in last Saturday’s Western Mail?

Like all big companies Royal London is into making money from pretending to be more altruistic, and the way to do that nowadays is to make people think your only motivation is to save the planet.

Royal London has gone in big. Just last year it splashed out £260m buying 21,000 acres of farmland. As Head of Property for Royal London Asset Management, Mark Evans, put it:

Working alongside South Yorkshire Pension Authority to invest into the largest farming transaction by capital value in the UK has provided an exceptional opportunity to launch our natural capital strategy.

Yeah, ‘natural capital’. Monetise everything.

Then, last month, Rosslyn Barr-Clowe joined another coastal protection outfit. This one being the Protected Areas Foundation, registered as a charity 29 November last year.

Interestingly, the two founding trustees are Suresh Nalin Weerasinghe, a lawyer with Aviva, which works with BlackRock. The other founder trustee is Patrick Peter Joseph Hargreaves, CEO at AKO Capital LLP. Director at AKO Capital Management Ltd. Portfolio Manager of the AKO Global Fund.

So the woman who is lead trustee at Project Seagrass, so busy around the Welsh coast at the moment, has just joined another coastal protection charity, where the two other trustees are most definitely from asset management and investments.

But we’re expected to believe it’s all about the quality of the water?

The Protected Areas Foundation (The PAF) is a UK charity dedicated to developing the capacity and skills of coastal communities, mobilising sustainable finance, and enabling co-governance to effectively manage marine protected areas.

Ah! Sustainable finance. What that really means is financial institutions capitalising on ‘sustainability’, often using mechanisms of their own invention and their own definition of what qualifies as sustainable.

And note how ‘Community’ is used again, as if it’s locals who’re going to benefit. In the WM piece I linked to earlier ‘community’ or ‘communities’ appeared no less than 5 times. Like I said, clever writing.

And before I forget, there’s yet another coastal charity with which Rosslyn Barr-Clowe is involved. Though this seems confined to Scotland, at the moment. It’s the Coastal Communities Network. And she’s been an Advisory Group Member since June 2021.

How many of these ‘coastal’ groups are there?

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HIDING BEHIND YOUNG ALED

Spare a thought for young Aled, because so many depend on him and others like him, but he just thinks he’s playing on the seashore.

Immediately behind him are the left wing, Globalist, anti humanity, vegan ‘environmental’ groups and NGOs. Breaking ground for those who follow.

Used as a distraction, hoping we’ll think this is the only money involved, are the National Lottery, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and other donors.

Demanding credit for ‘saving the planet’, are the clowns in Corruption Bay. All they’re doing is obeying orders from above.

Slightly further back we find the investment houses, the asset managers, looking for opportunities created by those mentioned in the previous paragraphs. The real money.

Back in the shadows, often controlling the ‘investors’, you’ll discern BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street and other Globalist corporations.

At the very back, behind the curtain, setting the rules, are the supranational bodies like the UN, WEF, EU.

Thankfully, Aled is only a five-year-old boy, and his shadow isn’t big enough for all these bastards to hide in.

We see you!

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2025

The Great Rip-off: On Land, At Sea, In Space!

On By JacIn Colonialism, Corruption, Environmentalism, Plaid Cymru, Welsh Government58 Comments

On this blog I have consistently argued that I want Wales to operate less like a colonial possession and more like countries run by politicians who prioritise the material well-being of the people in those countries.

The so-called  ‘Welsh Government’ clearly thinks I’m asking for too much. For it continues to encourage and facilitate the exploitation of our homeland by foreign companies and other agencies.

Methods now being employed to disguise the nature of the beast include a veneer of Welsh involvement. And it is no more than a veneer. An expensive veneer, because it’s often paid for from the Welsh public purse.

Another way of thinking about this ‘veneer’ is to view it as the classic variant of colonialism that allows members of a native elite to profit from the plundering of their country and its resources. It both buys their loyalty and disguises the colonialism.

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ON LAND

This is what I’ve been reporting with Bute Energy, that multi-headed monster that emerged from nowhere, with no background in renewables, and no Welsh connection, but which is now hoping to erect 20 wind farms in Wales.

Explained here in, ‘Corruption Is Such An Ugly Word . . . But I Can’t Think Of Anything Else To Call It!’

Bute set up a totally superfluous ‘Welsh Advisory Board’ in order to provide sinecures for redundant Labour MEP Derek Vaughan, and John Uden, partner of Labour MS Jenny Rathbone.

I’m uncertain of Dr Williams’ political loyalties while John Davies is a rural ‘Independent’. Perhaps even one of Pembrokeshire’s Independent Independents (I have trouble keeping up). Click to open enlarged in separate tab.

The only ‘advice’ Bute expected from this Board was to be told who they should see to get things done. Better still, to hear, ‘Leave it to me, I’ll have a word with ———-‘.

It stinks. But it didn’t end there.

Winner of the Farley’s Rusks Chubby Cheeks Competition 1986, and later spad to the Labour mighty, David James Taylor, also had his snout firmly in the Bute trough. Though his membership of linked Grayling Capital LLP ended in September, after the spotlight fell on him.

But Taylor still has shares in Windward Enterprises Ltd, the owner of Bute Energy Ltd, which in turn owns the 20 companies, one for each of the proposed wind farms. These shares are held in his own name and that of his company, Moblake Associates Ltd.

The lucre from his association with Bute seems to have been shovelled to his company Moblake Ltd, from which Taylor then paid himself £605,872 in roughly three years. This was done in the form of ‘loans’ that don’t need to be repaid!

Click to open enlarged in separate tab

Taylor’s latest venture, also based at 69 Lambeth Walk, is Earthcott Ltd. Set up just before he quit Grayling Capital. Unsurprisingly, this new company is also in the flim-flam and door-opening business.

So we have a company, Bute Energy, and its associated entities, hoping to make a lot of money out of Wales. Perhaps for the minimal outlay of 20 planning applications. Which I’m sure Bute believes will be waived through.

And as I suggested last week with Bute Energy Selling Wales For Danegeld? Bute may already have made a pile from whatever agreement has been reached with Danish investors.

Now it’s time to move offshore, so don your oilskins and adopt a jaunty nautical stance. (But anyone attempting Robert Newton impersonations will be keelhauled!)

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ALL AT SEA

It may have escaped your notice, but Wales has vibrant offshore wind and wave industries. Or at least, that’s what we’re being told.

Though the offshore wind turbines seem limited thus far to the north coast. Which presumably means they’re the profitable responsibility of the Crown Estate. (Devolved in Scotland but not in Wales.)

Which is why I was surprised that the Welsh National Marine Plan – produced by the ‘Welsh Government’ late in 2019 – only mentioned the Crown Estate in passing. Almost as if the ‘Welsh Government’ wants us to believe that Gwynt y Môr and the other arrays are all their own work, with the benefits accruing to Wales.

Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

It should go without saying – this being Wales – that these offshore wind farms are all foreign-owned. Keeping to this template, the latest array proposed, Awel y Môr, will be owned by German company RWE.

But it’s not just wind turbines fixed to the sea bed that Corruption Bay encourages. There are also plans for floating turbines, and wave energy.

Which is a cue for us to head down to Pembrokeshire, where we find Mor Glas Wind Farm Ltd (16.08.2021) and Mor Gwyrdd Wind Farm Ltd (ditto) sharing an address in Pembroke Dock.

The directors of both companies are Joseph Geraint Kidd who, to his credit, describes himself as Welsh rather than British on Companies House documents; and Niamh Kenny, who is Irish.

Kidd has had a number of other companies to his name, among them Venn Associates Ltd (13.06.2019). We’ll return in a moment to Venn and Niamh Kenny.

Before that, let’s remind ourselves that Pembrokeshire is quite a hot-spot for marine renewables. As I reported here in August 2020 with Wales and envirocolonialism.

Another company hoping to cash in is Cambrian Offshore South West Ltd (09.01.2019). Companies House tells us that the splendidly monikered Diccon Stideford Rogers of Falmouth is the only director. From the same source we learn that a confirmation statement is overdue.

In fact, I’m wondering if this outfit is still afloat, because there seems to have been no activity on the very basic website for over a year.

It would be a pity if Cambrian Offshore sank without trace, because last August the Development Bank of Wales loaned the company £650,000. DBW tried to cover itself with a charge against the assets; though whether Cambrian Offshore has assets to that value is debatable.

Perhaps Diccon’s other companies will chip in.

Click to open enlarged in separate tab

Sue Barr’s Linkedin page makes no mention of Cambrian Offshore, despite her being described as Managing Director. But it does introduce us to other players. Among them Marine Energy Wales, where we find Joseph Geraint Kidd again, on the Advisory Board. Also the Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum.

I wonder how much the locals down there know of these organisations, these wonderful plans? And will they see any benefits?

Let’s return to Joseph Geraint Kidd and Niamh Kenny. As we’ve seen, they are linked through the two companies, Mor Glas Wind Farm Ltd and Mor Gwyrdd Wind Farm Ltd.

But both have fingers in other pies.

Here’s Niamh Kenny’s Linkedin page. The recent appointments listed are:

DP Energy, but we must assume she’s left because she certainly doesn’t figure in the company’s ‘team’.

Also, from January 2021, she’s been a self-employed ‘Renewable Energy Specialist’.

While from May 2021 Niamh Kenny has also been Project Developer at NMK Renewables and SBM Offshore. The first is, presumably, her company, using her initials; while the second is a major Dutch company.

Finally, we see that Niamh Kenny is a partner in Hiraeth Energy. And who could argue with this ‘local benefits’ mission statement:

Fine words. But are they anything more than fine words? Click to open enlarged in separate tab

My initial inquiry established that Hiraeth is a partner in Climate Cymru, a clique of planet savers subsisting on a diet of fully organic public funding. Climate Cymru contains some organisations I regard with suspicion, a few with contempt.

Then I found Hiraeth in glorious isolation as Hiraeth Energy LLP (21.07.2021). That is, Limited Liability Partnership, an opaque arrangement often used to cover up shady dealings. A LLP doesn’t have directors, it has members. Which explains Niamh Kenny’s relationship.

And among the other members of Hiraeth we find the aforementioned Venn of Joseph Geraint Kidd.

There is one Companies House entry for Venn Associates Ltd (13.06.2019) that tells us Kidd is the sole director; but there is another entry that lists, in place of directors, Hiraeth LLP and Afallen LLP.

Hiraeth, we know about, but who or what is Afallen LLP? For Afallen is also listed as a member for Hiraeth LLP. The Afallen website proclaims: “What Wales does today, the world will do tomorrow”.

I hope to God that is just hyperbole, because if it’s a prediction, and anywhere near true, then I’ll seriously consider drinking myself to death.

Can you imagine a world ruled by the kind of duplicitous and incompetent buffoons that inhabit Corruption Bay? No, don’t even think about it!

Companies House tells us that the original partners in Afallen LLP (04.10.2018) were Dr David Owain Clubb, Mari Frances Arthur, and RTRT Consulting Ltd of Penarth. Though Clubb was soon replaced by his company Cymorth Clubb Cyf (05.11.2018). They have of course been recently joined by Kidd’s Venn Associates. It’s all very incestuous.

If the names Clubb and Arthur sound familiar, it’s because . . .

Clubb is the brother of former Plaid Cymru CEO Gareth Clubb. While Arthur caused disruption a few years back when her friends in Plaid HQ imposed her on the winnable Llanelli seat.

This imposition resulted in mass resignations locally and Plaid Cymru handing the seat to Labour. A rum do. Very rum.

So, to sum up: Joseph Geraint Kidd of Pembrokeshire has linked with Niamh Kenny of County Cork who is knowledgeable about offshore renewables. It appears she is also familiar with some big hitters in the business.

Companies that might be interested in Pembrokeshire.

What I presume Ms Kenny does not have is political connections in Wales. Which is where I suggest Afallen comes in.

For Arthur and Clubb are also in the door-opening business. Just like those taken on by Bute Energy. And now, with Labour and Plaid in alliance, well-connected members of both parties can expect to be in demand.

These are the kind of people who flit between politics, third sector, and private companies; providing nothing in the way of public benefit, but always guaranteed publicity from a compliant media and access to their politician friends.

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THE FINAL FRONTIER

There was considerable chortling last week at the news Wales has a space programme.

Did you ever read such bollocks! Click to open enlarged in separate tab

Though let me put your mind at rest in case you’re worrying about Welsh public funding being used to land a non-binary and intersectional party of Wokeonauts on a dreary rock, far, far away . . .

(Though the idea is not without its attractions.)

There is no Welsh space programme. It’s just the Corruption Bay gang trying to put a Welsh spin on orders from London. And not for the first time. Or the last.

Though we could still end up financing a scheme from which we’ll see no benefits.

Let’s look at this scam in greater detail. Starting with the front page from last week’s Cambrian News. Having a couple of comedians accompany the headline is very fitting. We’ll soon meet another.

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The CN’s inside pages went for broke. Even giving us a piece by Vaughan Gething MS, Minister for the Economy. (There – what did I promise you!)

Having a Minister for the Economy in Wales is like having a Minister for Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia. Neither’s expected to do much.

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From that inside spread you’ll see Llanbedr and Aberporth mentioned. Which should give you a clue as to what we’re really talking about here. But if you’re still struggling . . . it’s drones and missiles, possibly satellites. But dressed up as a ‘space programme’.

I’ve written about Llanbedr a few times. First, here, in Miscellany 15.01.2020 (scroll down to section ‘Llanbedr Airfield’). A week later with Come Fly With Me. And then, in December 2020, it was Lucky Gwynedd – More ‘Investors’ (‘Fly boys’).

Remarkably, a week after that final piece appeared, the loans Snowdonia Aerospace LLP had received from the Secretary of State for Defence and the ‘Welsh Ministers’ over 8 years earlier were paid off.

These loans were made so that Snowdonia Aerospace could lease Llanbedr from its nominal owner – ‘The National Assembly for Wales’. Which means that we paid an English company to lease property from us!

That’s how to run a country!

Though whether any money was really paid is another matter. Perhaps to avoid giving ammunition to a nosey blogger someone thought it best to write off those debts.

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Alternatively, it was all a sham, with no money being loaned in the first place, with maybe Llanbedr staying in MoD ownership.

Whatever happened, the key player in this, in the assorted entities involved, the Byzantine dealings, seems to be Lee John Paul. Learn more about him in those earlier posts to which I’ve linked.

It’s reasonable to assume that Paul is well connected with the defence establishment. Otherwise the Ministry of Defence would not have loaned him money or allowed him to use Llanbedr airfield.

For Llanbedr was not Paul’s first venture with former MoD sites in Wales. He was also involved in a company promising to turn RAF Brawdy into a business park.

Brawdy Business Park Ltd gave up the ghost in April 2013 owing a lot of money. Some of it to the Welsh Development Agency.

Llanbedr airfield. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

This whole idea of a ‘spaceport’, and where to locate it, is political. It’s about flying the flag. The Union flag. Which is why a site in SNP-run Scotland beat Llanbedr to the prize.

So what we’re discussing here is at best the consolation prize; and an exercise in turd polishing on the part of the ‘Welsh Government’.

With that in mind, here’s what I think is really happening at Llanbedr . . .

By promising skilled jobs the Ministry of Defence – operating through, or in partnership with, private companies – hopes the ‘Welsh Government’ and Cyngor Gwynedd will cough up funding for a ‘spaceport’.

This, as we highly-trained defence analysts are wont to say, is a load of old bollocks. First, because the reality will just be upgraded drone and missile testing, Second, rural Wales does not have the skills needed, and training is unlikely to be provided.

Then there’d be the security dimension. I remember how RAE Llanbedr operated. All the best jobs went to retired service personal – who’d signed the Official Secrets Act – while cooks and cleaners were recruited locally.

The proof for me that the Llanbedr Spaceport is just a PR exercise lies in other actions by the ‘Welsh Government’. 

Because if Llanbedr was going to be Gwynedd’s Cape Canaveral, with thousands of highly-skilled local employees, then Corruption Bay would not have pulled the plug on the planned by-pass.

Somebody’s lying.

As yet, we don’t know the Welsh beneficiaries of this particular fairy tale, but as with renewables and other scams, they will emerge.

♦ end ♦

 

© Royston Jones 2022


Social Housing, Time to End This Lunacy

On By JacIn Colonisation of Wales, Demographics, Housing, Planning, Public Funding, Social Housing, Third Sector, Welsh Government20 Comments

I have written many times about the national disaster that passes for a housing strategy in our rural areas, a ‘strategy’ that sees private properties built for which there is no local demand, or at prices most of us can’t afford, while in the social sector we have an allocations system that ensures just about anyone qualifies ahead of locals. Quite recently, thanks to the indefatigable Wynne Jones, I have become acquainted with yet another cause for concern, one that would boggle a mind less inured to the lunacies of devolved Wales.

This particular example comes from Pembrokeshire, and the cause for concern is Mill Bay Homes, a subsidiary of Pembrokeshire Housing. Or at least, that’s what it says on the Mill Bay Homes website, but there’s no mention of Mill Bay Homes on the Pembrokeshire Housing website. But as they share the same address in Haverfordwest we must assume they are known to each other.

If we go to this page on the Mill Bay Homes website we see that this subsidiary of the Pembrokeshire Housing Association Ltd operates no different to a private company in that it builds and sells property using the justification that it is “a business with a social purpose” because the money it makes will be invested in social housing built by the parent company.

Mill Bay Help to Buy

Elsewhere on the Mill Bay website you will see the image reproduced above, so what is the Help to Buy – Wales scheme? Quite simply, it’s the local variant of a UK-wide programme to boost the building trade by helping prospective house buyers. A buyer needs to contribute only 5% of the purchase price, the ‘Welsh’ Government will then give a shared-equity loan of 20% if the purchaser can find an acceptable mortgage lender for the remaining 75%. An excellent idea, surely?

Certainly, and it gets even better when we open the ‘Welsh’ Government’s Help to Buy publication and scroll down to page six, where, in the right-hand column, we read, “The property purchased must be your only residence. Help to Buy – Wales is not available to assist buy–to–let investors or those who will own any property other than their Help to Buy – Wales property after completing their purchase”. (My emphasis.)

Yet despite the programme’s ban on those hoping to use public funding for private investment the Mill Bay Homes website actually encourages the “Investment Buyer”. (See panel below.) How can Mill Bay Homes offer investment buyers access to a scheme that specifically bars them! No doubt Mill Bay Homes would tell us that it differentiates between investors and owner-occupiers, and that Help to Buy is only offered to the former . . . but nowhere on its website does it say this.

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I’ve already said that Help to Buy is a UK-wide scheme overseen in Wales by the ‘Welsh’ Government, but I wasn’t sure who actually implements it, who dishes out the lucre as it were. So I made some enquiries. The money is disbursed by Help To Buy (Wales) Ltd, company number 08708403, Incorporated 28.09.2013, and based at 1 Capital Quarter, Tyndall Street, Cardiff CF10 4BZ.

Help To Buy (Wales) Ltd has share capital of £1 held by Finance Wales Plc with the Ultimate Parent Company given as “Welsh Ministers”. Welsh Ministers! Does that refer to a vestryful of nonconformist divines or those buffoons down Cardiff docks? Unfortunately, it means the latter.

The three directors of Help To Buy (Wales) Ltd are Dr David James Staziker, Mr Kevin Patrick O’Leary and Mr Michael Owen. A fourth director, Ms Siân Lloyd Jones, resigned on September 30th. They are also directors of FW Capital Ltd (07078439), and North West Loans Ltd (07397297). In addition, there is FW Development Capital (North West) GP Ltd (08355233). All share the Help To Buy address and all link back to ‘Welsh Ministers’. In fact, there are lots of companies linked to Finance Wales Plc and O’Leary, Owen and Jones seem to have been directors of most of them.

Help to Buy 1

Why so many companies, and who are Staziker, O’Leary and Owen? Are they civil servants who (for the sake of public consumption) are answerable to the ‘Welsh’ Government or are they businesspeople or professionals employed by the ‘Welsh’ Government? Either way, what power do these people have to ensure that millions and millions of pounds of our money is properly spent? And if they simply dole out the money, then who does ensure that it’s properly spent?

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I can see the Help to Buy scheme working just fine in England, and Scotland, and also in our towns and cities, though in our rural areas it risks exacerbating the problem I have discussed countless times, and that’s because anyone from anywhere can apply to the Help to Buy Scheme to purchase a new property in a Welsh town or village. No local connection is required.

This refusal on the part of the ‘Welsh’ Labour ‘Government’ in Cardiff docks to prioritise Welsh interests almost certainly explains the planning application for 30 new properties in Cilgerran, north Pembrokeshire, submitted by Mill Bay Homes Ltd. Here’s the planning application, I suggest you keep it open in another window or browser so that you can refer to it as I go along.

You will see – in Section 3 – that the application is for planning consent for 8 x 3-bed detached houses, 12 x 3-bed semi-detached houses, and 10 x 2-bed semi-detached houses. Scroll down to Section 18 and you will see that all thirty dwellings are described as “Social Rented Housing”. Which is odd seeing as this planning application was submitted by Mill Bay Housing, which only builds to sell, even inviting investors.

Something else worth remarking on is that in my experience very few detached three-bedroom houses are built for the social rental sector. Oh, and one other thing . . . Pembrokeshire Housing offers a Welsh version of its website, whereas Mill Bay Homes is strictly English only.

Cilgerran

For those who don’t know Cilgerran, it’s a pleasant, scenic village upriver from Cardigan. In 1931 94% of the population of Cilgerran parish was Welsh speaking, today it’s below 50%, for the usual reason: economic decline disguised with the kind of tourism that does little for locals but encourages their replacement with a wealthier stratum of good-lifers, retirees, fleece jacket fascists and others drawn by the area’s physical and scenic attractions, an immigrant population having no regard for the area’s cultural heritage and national identity.

Though perhaps the major question is, why has Mill Bay Homes, a company that on its own website is described as specialising “in the development and sale of homes suited to the lifestyles of customers who range from those buying for the first time through to those looking to downsize or retire” now put in a planning application for rented social housing?

It could be that the answer lies with the use of words such as “lifestyles”, “downsizing” and “retire”. For they sound very odd if these properties are being built for locals to rent, but they’re just the kind of sales pitch I’d expect to see used if the Cilgerran development is targeting buyers from over the border.

So what is the truth about this Cilgerran development and Mill Bay Homes? I think we’re entitled to answers. Maybe the ‘Welsh Ministers’ or the troika named above can assure us that the operations of Pembrokeshire Housing and Mill Bay Homes are above board, and that our generosity isn’t being abused.

Specifically: Has Mill Bay Homes helped ‘investors’ access the Help to Buy scheme? Is public money being used to build properties in Cilgerran described as social housing but intended to be sold on the open market?

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The relationship between Pembrokeshire Housing and Mill Bay Homes is one I have expressed concerns about before. (Here’s one example.) It sees a body in receipt of large amounts of public funding set up a subsidiary that operates in a way that is either difficult to track, or else in a manner barred to the parent body. The relationship is too often opaque and offers no guarantee that public funding to the parent body is not channelled to the unregulated and unaudited (by funders) subsidiary.

This is what we appear to have with Pembrokeshire Housing and Mill Bay Homes. Even though the latter piously claims that its “earnings will be covenanted to the parent company (Pembrokeshire Housing) for the express purpose of re-investment in the social housing development programme in Pembrokeshire” we have no guarantee of that, because Mill Bay Homes does not receive direct public funding it is not audited.

This parent and subsidiary arrangement should not be allowed where the parent body is in receipt of public funding unless the subsidiaries are covered by the same regulations and checks as the parent body. Ask yourself this, ‘How did Mill Bay Homes build its first properties? Was it with money given by Pembrokeshire Housing? And was that start-up money funding that the parent company had received in ‘Welsh’ Government grants? If so, who authorised this generosity?

In the wider context we now see a social housing sector that is costing Wales hundreds of millions of pounds every year for very little return. The reasons for this unsustainable situation are clear.

We have far too many housing associations. All paying inflated salaries and pension packages to their senior staff. Those same executives, understanding the dog-eat-dog world they inhabit, and fearful of being swallowed up by a rival, believe they must grow to survive, which inevitably results in increased levels of speculative building unrelated to local need. But don’t worry – it’s only public money! And Wales can afford it.