Lagoon decision ‘means SW missing out potential jobs’

The South West has missed out on hundreds of potential jobs after the government decided not to back a £1.3bn scheme to build a tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-44589083) , business experts claim.

The Devon and Cornwall Business Council said it had been expected that the scheme could have brought 200 jobs in maintenance and other services to places such as Ilfracombe.

That number could have grown as the lagoon could have been the first of a number to be developed in the Bristol Channel.

Developers said the project would generate enough clean energy to power 155,000 homes but Business Secretary Greg Clark said it didn’t represent value for money.

Jobs would have been controversially created in Cornwall as stone to create the lagoon would have come from Dean Quarry, near St Keverne. Local people and environmentalists were against the work at the quarry which has been moth-balled rather than closed.

Quarry owners Shire Oak is not making any comment at this stage.

Story by Hamish Marshall for BBC Spotlight