The Information Commissioner has ordered Milford Haven Port Authority to release documents it has tried to keep out of the public domain.

The commissioner ruled the port authority (MHPA) applied Freedom of Information Act regulations inappropriately in seeking to withhold the information' and has ordered the release of two environmental documents.

A Freedom of Information Act request in January 2005 asked MHPA for a copy of any risk assessments on which its advice to planning authorities about the safety of LNG shipping in Milford Haven was based.

In April 2005, the applicant, Richard Buxton of Environmental and public law, complained to the commissioner about the way the request was handled.

The commissioner has now given MHPA 35 days to release the documents, or 28 days to appeal against the decision.

Spokesman Gordon Main said: "Safe Haven awaits the release of the documents with considerable interest. It will mark a new era for the public debate surrounding the LNG terminals."

MHPA chief executive, Ted Sangster, said: "We have 28 days in which to appeal. We are considering that with our lawyers at the moment, but we point out that we have released a significant amount of information in different ways."

A port authority spokesman added: "We welcome the opportunity, once again, to challenge strenuously Safe Haven's assertion that we have spent years trying to keep the details of what work we have or have not done from the public'."

The natural gas pipeline running from Milford Haven has also run into trouble after a High Court judge rule a decision to grant planning permission for a terminal at Cilfrew, near Neath, was unlawful.