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