Langland Bay beach has lost sand over the years

Locations as far a field as the Usk Valley and Pontardulais have been proposed, but most are unspoilt rural landscapes and such developments are likely to be opposed.

Campaigners say the multi-million pound dregding ships should simply operate further offshore but the industry says that is just not practical.

In June 2001 Welsh Assembly Environment Minister Sue Essex granted an eight-month extension to sand dredging operators in the Bristol Channel.

Dredging activities off the south Wales coast have been blamed by environmentalists for causing erosion to beaches and cliffs.

But Ms Essex said her decision was a "short-term measure" while further consideration was given to future dredging licence applications.

A dredging ship extracting sand

The Marine Aggregate Dredging Policy South Wales - a draft policy document for the National Assembly - was put out for public consultation last summer.

The temporary licences covered 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.

A gravel extraction site

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.

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.

In September 2001, it emerged that the Welsh Assembly had commissioned a study of gravel dredging on the English side of the sea bed in the Bristol Channel.

The area under study was around Lundy island - a vulnerable marine conservation area off north Devon.