Local MP Simon Hart MP has expressed his regret that a ragworm farm on Laugharne Marshes that employed up to ten people has gone into liquidation.

And he says that the Welsh Assembly Government now has tough questions to answer about what happened to the £1.03 million of public money that was pumped into the ill-fated project.

"This is obviously a very sad day for all those who have lost jobs at the Dragon Feeds ragworm farm but I have been investigating the funding of this project for more than a year and I think some urgent answers are now needed," said Mr Hart.

"We know that it was awarded EU Objective One funds of £1.03 million for what was originally intended to be a ragworm farm with 270 ponds employing 70 people. However only 74 tanks, less than a quarter of the proposed project was ever built, and I understand that there was only ever a maximum of ten people employed there.

"I wrote to the then First Minister Ieaun Wyn Jones outlining my grave concerns about where all this public money had gone and was told that Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) officials had informed the Welsh Assembly Government that the tanks were completed and that the project had until 30 June 2010 to meet its targets in terms of employment levels.

"Of course 70 people were never employed and so I wrote asking what claw-back clauses there were to get some of this public money returned if it was clear that the project had not been fully completed.

"Mr Wyn Jones told me in September that as a result of "innovative developments in new cultivation technology and design improvement" fewer tanks were needed which also led to fewer staff being needed and he reassured me that the full quota of staff were expected to be employed when full harvesting took place later that year.

"Is the Welsh Assembly Government satisfied that six people was a "full quota" instead of 70? I have now written to the new first minister was Carwyn Jones asking him to investigate this use of public money as a matter of urgency."