Decision demanded on port closure compensation | UK News

The Welsh government must decide “urgently” whether businesses hit by the Holyhead port closure should be compensated, a Senedd committee has said.

The UK’s second busiest passenger port was closed for more than a month last December by damage from Storm Darragh.

The local council has called for financial help with some businesses saying trade was down by 90% over the period.

Members of the Senedd (MSs) on the economy committee criticised ministers for their “sluggish” response to the port closure. Firmly rejecting that criticism, the Welsh government said it “acted swiftly and effectively based on the information that was available to us”.

In their report published on Thursday, MSs expressed dismay at the “lack of speed and urgency” in the Welsh government response to the closure and said they wanted ministers to conduct a “lessons learned review” so Holyhead was prepared and resilient in the future.

Conservative committee chair Andrew RT Davies said some local firms had reported losses of tens of thousands of pounds from the closure and said it was “clear that the Welsh government’s response was not acceptable”.

“We are very disappointed by the lack of speed and urgency in the Welsh government’s response to the closure of a crucial European trade route,” he said.

“It is local action and cooperation between ports that prevented Holyhead’s closure from being even worse for Welsh trade and the wider economy.”

Welsh ministers were “too slow to act and uncoordinated”, Davies said, with “many people left in the dark because communications were not good enough – this must not happen again”.

“Ports and freight are vital to our economy and the Welsh government has ignored these areas for too long,” he said.

“We were promised new policies by last December but this has now been kicked into the long grass until next year – this is not good enough, we need action now.”

The committee took evidence from Transport Secretary Ken Skates and Economy Secretary Rebecca Evans but it said it was “unclear” which minister was responsible for dealing with the crisis.

The report said “this confusion may have exacerbated problems with the response to this emergency”.

For future incidents, the report called for a single “ministerial lead” to oversee and be held accountable for management of the response.

The committee said there was “a lack of urgency” in responding to requests for support from affected businesses with “a limited understanding” of how the closure was affecting local workers.

It said the Welsh government needed to “urgently decide” what financial and other support was available for those hit by any port closures.

The committee accused the Welsh government of showing a lack of attention to both ports and freight over recent years and expressed concerns about trade being diverted elsewhere.

The transport secretary has announced a “Welsh government-led multi-stakeholder taskforce to develop a new strategy for the future of Holyhead”.

The committee said it would closely monitor this work.

Very strongly. Unusually, it issued a statement criticising the Economy Committee.

It said it was “very disappointing” that it had “failed to seek clarification and detailed information about the efforts made to support freight and passenger movements prior to publishing their report”.

“In conjunction with the private sector port operator and ferry companies, we acted swiftly and effectively based on the information that was available to us as the scale and impact of the incident evolved,” the statement said.

“Our collective action helped manage the immediate impact of the closure and ensured that the impact on trade was mitigated wherever possible, which the report fails to acknowledge.

“We will provide a full response to the report in due course.

“The Irish Sea Taskforce, currently underway, will be invaluable in allowing us to reflect on the port’s temporary closure in a more considered way, as well as ensuring we safeguard the future resilience of Irish Sea routes.”