Accross the Irish Sea, the Welsh Government has reached an agreement with the UK Government on the establishment of Freeports in Wales with £26m in starter funding secured.

As North Wales Live revealed (earlier) this morning, the deal had been sealed after months of wrangling about funding and concerns about how a freeport would operate.

Now Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething, has confirmed Welsh Ministers have agreed to support Freeport policies in Wales following the UK Government’s agreement to meet demands that UK Ministers provide at least £26m of non-repayable starter funding. This represents parity with the deals offered to the eight English Freeports.

UK Government’s Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove also confirmed the deal. He added: "The UK Government’s ambitious Freeports agenda will help to level up our coastal communities and create new opportunities for people right across the country."

Ports across Wales, including Holyhead, Milford Haven and Associated British Ports’ South Wales ports, have expressed an interest to securing freeport status and the next stage will be selecting a site.

For further details agreed in the freeport deal, North Wales Live reports and for more on the development.

#ferries - A UK transport union is continuing its programme of objections to ferry and other shipping operators who sail under flags of convenience and skirt around UK employment laws and rates of pay with a protest which will take place this Friday, at Holyhead Port, Anglesey in north Wales. 

The protest by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), according to HandyShippingGuide is to commence at 06:30 hours and targeting the 08:25 sailing of the Irish Ferries RoRo freight and passenger ferry WB Yeats, is to demand seafarer jobs, enforcement of employment law and trade union rights according to the union.

The €144 million luxury vessel (made a delivery voyage to Dublin Port) in December and (last month entered service) is registered under the Cypriot flag which has incensed the union.

For further reading on this ferry development, click here 

Afloat adds the sailing targeted does not tally with W.B. Yeats roster, as according to the Irish Ferries website the ropax Epsilon is to depart Holyhead at the slightly earlier time of 08.15. While on that morning W.B. Yeats will notably be on the other side of the Irish Sea with a scheduled departure from Dublin at 08.05hrs.