Times: “Mankind’s faltering efforts to protect coastal idylls from raging waves”
Cuckmere Haven in East Sussex is the quintessential English beauty spot. In the bed of the valley a river meanders lazily down to the sea. Cows graze in lush green pastures. The smooth flanks of the South Downs rise on either side until those to the east terminate abruptly in the sheer chalk cliffs of the Seven Sisters with their panoramic views of the English Channel.
This idyllic scenery is enjoyed by more than 400,000 visitors a year. A beautiful photograph of a 19th-century coastguard cottage on the valley’s westward side sustained Robbie Turner through the horrors of the Second World War in the film Atonement. But Cuckmere Haven is also — though the casual hiker would never guess it — the centre of a raging controversy over government plans to let it revert to what it was before man began tinkering with nature: a tidal estuary with saltmarsh and mud flats.
Read the full story by Martin Fletcher on the Times website
It is absolutely astonishing that an article of this length can be published in a national newspaper describing in great detail, and by some enthusiastic quotes from the EA, the possibility of creating new wetlands, protecting the flora and fauna, etc. etc., yet only mentioning the actual blight of homo sapiens ( i.e. loss of property without compensation) in barely two lines!.When will the national papers address the ‘real issue’ and stand up for the people? Coupled with “Flood” which was shown on ITV on Sunday and Monday evening , it quite easily could influence City dwellers that there is a need to establish more space for the ‘tide to run out ” , hence justifying the creation of such wetlands, as proposed by the EA, who just happen to run a trailer immediately after the film about their flood line! Talk about distorting the truth! It is high time that the ‘actual ‘ facts are reported and the Government taken to task on this issue.
Comment by doc — May 6, 2008 @ 7:01 am