Sue Essex: 'Short-term decision'

"This provides an economic safeguard for the firms and projects in South Wales which depend on the availability of this resource," said Ms Essex.

The minister added that the temporary licence would have no detrimental impact on the Nash Bank area.

Three dredging firms will continue to extract sand for use in building and construction projects in the south Wales area.

The Marine Aggregate Dredging Policy South Wales - a draft policy document for the National Assembly - has been put out to public consultation until 27 July.

This is a short-term measure while the long-term policies...are put in place

Sue Essex, Assembly Environment Minister

The temporary licences will cover the period required to consider the consultation responses and prepare the final document.

Dredgers are currently removing hundreds of thousands of tons of sand every year from the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary.

The ship's owners say they are meeting the needs of the construction industry in Wales, supporting 1,700 jobs.

The operators have denied that they are causing irreversible environmental damage by stripping the channel of sand.

In the long-term, the assembly must decide whether the economic benefits of dredging outweigh the fears of environmentalists.

Last year, campaigners against dredging put their case in the form of a 10,000-name petition to the assembly.

Peter Black: Moratorium call

The campaign against the extraction of gravel from the Helwick sands has united conservationists, tourist operators and farmers.

They claim that many formerly sandy beaches - in particular those of Gower - are now down to bare rock and peat.

Liberal Democrat AM Peter Black said the removal of 80m tonnes of sand from the Channel had led to the "destruction" of beaches at Porthcawl and the Gower.

The member for South Wales West said he would like to see a moratorium on all further applications for dredging operations.

He said analysis was needed of all the available scientific data to discover the impact on beaches.

And he has called for the assembly to commission its own urgent research into the subject, together with studies into the impact of global warming and tidal barrages, such as Cardiff Bay.