Image of an underwater pushbike

We picked a glorious day for it, and on the surface the scene at Hobbs Point (part of the coastline between Milford Haven and Pembroke) was a fairly neat and clean one. But it's what’s hidden in the depths that bothers the members of NARC.

The first member of the team that I met was chairman Dave Kennard. He formed NARC five years ago after witnessing first-hand the damage that litter can do on the sea bed. I asked him what we might find lurking below. It seemed that pushbikes, scooters and skateboards were pretty common. Added to that fishing debris, nets, weights and the like. They’d even dragged a kitchen sink out of the sea on a previous dive. I can’t imagine why anyone would go to the effort of bringing a kitchen sink to the water’s edge when they could just take it to the tip?

Prepping his kit before heading underwater I found diver Mark Jones. I was surprised to find out that Mark had travelled from Church Village to take part in the dive because of his concern for the environment. He also said that it was a satisfying way to spend an afternoon and I started to get a feel for that.

Mark was not the only one who got a buzz from doing his bit. By the time the divers were ready to head in, on-shore support had arrived as well as two boats manned by the Maritime Volunteer Service (MVS). Dave explained that once they’d found an object they would attach a balloon-like lifting bag to it. Once inflated the object would float to the surface where it would be recovered by the boats and then handed to the on-shore team on land.

I took my place on the slipway edge. I’m not even sure five minutes had passed when the first balloon popped up. It was quite exciting wondering what on earth would be attached. I did ask one of the on-shore crew if they had ever found anything valuable and if so, had they been able to keep it. If they had, they weren’t telling.

First out was a bike, then after that a steady stream of metallic junk including a satellite dish and lobster pot, oh…and a scooter! (Apparently there is always a scooter.) As it arrived on shore it was clear that the bike also came with its very own commercial fishing net in tow and tangled in the debris were a number of crabs - a pretty depressing sight. But there was a silver lining - as we cut one crab away it moved so somehow it had survived.

I also got a taste of the action on board one of the MVS’s boats. They have no idea what they are going to be dragging out of the water until they put their hands on it. But even as we dragged out the next find we were still puzzled. It wasn’t until we discovered some kind of drive on it that the penny dropped – it was a computer! Why on earth would you chuck a computer over the edge? I could only presume that the person who did the chucking was extremely security conscious. John favoured ‘extremely lazy’. He told me that the tip was literally within a matter of miles.

It turned out to be a successful day clearing the sea bed. Added to the heap was a lawnmower, three skateboards, two halloween masks, one pair of sunglasses and a boat trailer wheel. Oh, and two pint glasses that diver Ed was going to take home and clean up. Now that’s what you call recycling. The items are recorded and the team tell me if they can’t be re-used then they are deposited where they should have been found in the first place, the local tip.

I headed home for a well-earned cuppa, smug in the knowledge that a small patch of the Pembrokeshire coastline was that bit cleaner because of our afternoon’s activity.

When I was growing up I was always led to believe that eating ‘wild’ mushrooms was definitely not the thing to do, so I was keen to find out what I’d been missing out on all these years.

Mushrooms

It may seem obvious writing it but the 'wild' mushrooms that we buy when more exotic recipes demand it cannot be cultivated. And so, when you work out how much you're paying for them, they can be absolutely extortionate. Yet I'm told they are growing in abundance in Welsh forests.

A little research pre-forage revealed that there are around 100 edible types native to Britain, but it is the porcini that I was on the hunt for just outside Newport. When my producer told me that they can cost over a £100 a kilo - the game was on… I was hooked.

Helping me in my search was environmental writer and wild food enthusiast Daniel Butler. He kitted me out with a rather cute Little Red Riding Hood-style basket, a mushroom knife (eek!) and some identification cards. Apparently the basket is desirable on two fronts: it allows good airflow around your mushrooms so keeps them in tip-top condition, and it also allows the spores to be distributed.

Rachel pictured with Daniel Butler

I have to say it was a bit of a relief that I had both Daniel and the mushroom ID cards to refer to because there are poisonous varieties in Britain which, if eaten, can cause serious illness. They can be tricky to idenitfy so make sure you use a guidebook or get expert advice (or your very own Daniel) before you go out.

Daniel told me: "Virtually every woodland in Wales is the perfect place to go mushroom hunting. Wales has got the perfect climate for mushrooms, we may not like it always but it's damp and it's mild and that's just what mushrooms love." I also learnt, "there is an edible mushroom out there virtually every month of the year if you know where to look".

So what did I find? Well, it took quite some time to happen upon a porcini much to my frustration! I kept finding bay boletes, or to give them their official name, Boletus Badius. (I wonder who named some of these mushrooms?)

The bay boletes appear to have a much thinner, browner stalk and when you turn them upside down and press on the underside of the cap they immediately looked bruised. And the cutting technique is all important. Daniel coached me to cut them as far down the stalk as possible and to make it a clean cut.

Rachel and Daniel during the mushroom foraging

And eventually we found out first porcini and it was a belter - worth the wait! I must admit that Daniel did nudge me in the right direction but I claimed it as mine, especially when I discovered that at around 300 grams in weight it would be worth about £45 at a food hall in London.

At the end of our forage we assessed our haul, which was about two kilograms of porcini in all (the majority found by Daniel). If you were to pay £125 a kilo we’d netted around £250 of mushrooms, not bad for a morning’s work.

Daniel suggested cooking up a mushroom risotto - but I then took my pickings to another foraging expert and chef, Tony Venditto, who suggested cooking a wild mushroom bruschetta.

Rachel with Tony Venditto

Tony was born in Italy but has lived in Wales for the past 30 years. The mushrooms that he forages are a major feature on the menu at his restaurant, Kemey's Manor just outside Newport.

Apparently, mushroom foraging is highly popular in his home country, and Tony used to go mushroom hunting as a young boy with his father. He thinks this mushroom season has been the best in Wales for 20 years. I wonder why we are so sniffy about foraging here in Britain?

The bruschetta is gorgeous. I never really think of using mushrooms as the star ingredient in a dish but the wild mushrooms we foraged for free were delicious.

Photo of the mushroom bruschetta

‘Locally sourced’ are such buzz words at the moment and you couldn’t get much more locally sourced than the mushrooms we picked - I really should get my wellies back on again and have another go!

Further information

Wild mushrooms recipes and information on BBC Food

Foraging article on the BBC Wales Nature website

With 15 flats in all they were looking at nearly £40,000 each - not the sort of sum you'd have lying around for a rainy day or even any day. Put in perspective, the resale value of the flats is £25-70,000.

Suzanne and Tom Davies from Griffin Press Court

As with most flats, the owners there don't own the property outright, they simply own the leasehold - the right to live there for a specific period. The freehold itself is held by a company - which can charge owners for maintenance and ground rent. In the case of Griffin Press Court the freehold has recently changed hands, with Wellington Investments - a company registered in the Seychelles - the new holders.

Suzanne had actually done all the hard work of upsizing. She'd managed to agree a sale on her flat which is some achievement in the current economic climate - but then the bombshell arrived in the form of letters from Wellington Investments.

Realising they couldn't meet the demands for money, Suzanne and husband, Tom, got together with owners of other flats in the building to discuss their fears. After getting free legal advice from The Leasehold Advisory Service, they've decided to appeal against the charges at the Residential Property Tribunal.

The flat owners are furious at the way Wellington Investments have treated them. They believe some of the work Wellington Investments has tried to make them pay for isn't even needed.

In addition, they are extremely unhappy that the company broke into some flats to carry out surveys and then changed the locks without the owners' permission. It didn't happen to Suzanne and Tom but was witnessed by one of their neighbours Danielle Peploe. I spoke to Danielle. She is really worried about the possibility of her home being repossessed if she can't meet the costs Wellington is asking for.

Also on site to meet me was David Shorthouse. He bought his flat as an investment last year. He says "The repairs could cost more than the original purchase of the flat, so it's absolutely ridiculous."

I asked Martyn Burnett, an expert chartered surveyor, to cast his eye over Griffin Press Court to see if the charges are justified. It would appear the person who conducted the survey to assess the building was struck off by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors earlier this year. He lost his accreditation as a chartered surveyor for "practising as a chartered surveyor, in a personal capacity, without appropriate registration, or professional indemnity insurance."

Martyn says, "Any person can conduct a survey with a bit of knowledge behind them. I think the problem as you say is the credibility of having a surveyor who was struck off and for the reason he was struck off, if you're dealing with a large contract like this, you have to ask yourself why would the firm choose this surveyor when there's so many around here in the local area they could have gone to?"

Martyn's also suspicious of the quotes Wellington Investments has provided. He says, "There are three quotes, apparently from different companies, to carry out the repairs." But according to Martyn, the figures are uncannily similar. "A lot of the pages here which we go through, you'll find there's the same figures on each page, maybe different handwriting. I find it unusual that independent contractors not coming together would pick up the same figures," he says.

According to Martyn, not all the work Wellington Investments says is necessary should be paid for by the owners. He points out, "The company is trying to charge them for new windows, but under the terms of their lease, they can't make the owners pay for something which counts as an improvement rather than a repair. The existing windows, although ten years old, are still serviceable so a repair would be sufficient."

I asked Martyn what he made of the way Wellington Investments have gone about all of this? He says, "The company's based in the Seychelles, so you've no idea who the directors are. It's a mail drop off box in an industrial estate in London where their mail is collected, it's not the normal way you go about managing this type of building."

Tom and Suzanne are frustrated that they haven't been able to speak to anyone at Wellington Investments to discuss their concerns. Suzanne says, "It's easy enough for them to just write and say you owe us money, but where are we going to live?"

We've tried to track the company down. They replied to our first letter saying the property needs substantial maintenance and repair and they're following the legal consultation process with the owners of the flats, but since then they haven't answered any of our questions.

Although they have got in touch with the flat owners, Block Maintenance, one of the companies that quoted for the work, is their own in-house contractor. We've checked and they aren't registered with Trustmark or with the Federation of Master Builders, which means there's no way of checking they are reputable tradespeople.

When it comes to the windows, Wellington Investments have accepted they should not have been included in the list of works, which should reduce the amount they are trying to charge, but the flat owners are determined to fight their corner and they want to take their case the Residential Property Tribunal.

The good news is cases involving half a million pounds are pretty rare. Most flats and some houses in Wales are sold as leasehold properties, so the advice is to make sure you check any agreements before you sign up to buy a leasehold property. If you've got any questions about your lease you can get free legal advice from the Leasehold Advisory Service.

Wellington Investments, which is incorporated in the Seychelles, is unrelated to Wellington Investments Limited which is registered in the UK.