Monday 28 April 2008

Conservation groups in Norfolk and Lincolnshire have come together to condemn the latest proposal for a barrage across The Wash.

Environmentalists believe the scheme, which was publicly launched today (Monday, April 28), could see the UK’s most important estuary for wildlife damaged beyond repair. Details of the proposal have been scant prior to today’s launch, but either a fixed barrage or a surge barrier would alter the normal ebb and flow of the tide in The Wash, destroying the wildlife that survives in eastern England’s last great wilderness.

Cambridgeshire-based businessman Peter Dawe has set up the Wash Tidal Barrier Corporation to raise private capital to build a barrier stretching from Hunstanton on the Norfolk coast to Skegness in Lincolnshire. He claims that, among other things, the barrage would be a sea defence and allow some areas of the estuary to be ‘reclaimed’.

The proposal appears to fall foul of all of the legislation and designations that protect sites such as The Wash. Nationally, the estuary is recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and under European law it is designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA) and as a Special Area for Conservation (SAC). It is also listed under an international convention protecting important wetlands (the Ramsar convention).

“This scheme should be dismissed as a non-starter,” said Richard Powell, Regional Director for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). “We’re talking about a site that supports a phenomenal amount of wildlife. It’s the most important estuary for birds in the UK, and to consider damaging it in this way beggars belief. It just goes to show the lack of understanding about our wild places, and the scale of some people’s ambitions to trash our environment. Exactly which businesses are going to line up behind a proposal that would see us destroy the UK’s greatest wildlife treasure? This just isn’t good business sense for the twenty-first century. Birds are one part of the equation, but there’s a multi-million pound wildlife watching and tourism industry that exists around The Wash. Damaging the wildlife would surely damage this, too.”

Caroline Steel, Assistant Director (Conservation) for the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust said: “The Wash is so important for its wildlife that it has almost every national and international designation available. We expect it to receive even greater protection in the forthcoming Marine Act. Investment in such a scheme would be foolish as it cannot possibly be given permission to proceed.”

Director of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Brendan Joyce said: “A tidal barrier across the Wash would effectively destroy one of the most important estuaries for wildlife in England. Such a proposal cannot be taken seriously.”

The Wash – a factfile

• The Wash is the UK’s largest natural embayment, with four main rivers flowing into it: the Witham, the Welland, the Nene, and the Great Ouse. It is approximately 15 miles along by 15 miles across. It is made up of a mixture of habitats, primarily intertidal mudflats, sandbanks, and saltmarsh.
• During the winter, over a third of a million birds can be present in The Wash, while countless others use it as a ‘pit stop’ during their migrations to breeding or wintering grounds. Since 2001, a peak average of 335,061 birds have recorded using the site. (Source: Waterbirds in the UK 2004 / 05 – The Wetland Bird Survey, published by BTO, WWT, RSPB, and JNCC)
• Seventeen species of bird occur in the Wash in ‘internationally important’ numbers. These are pink-footed goose, brent goose, shelduck, pintail, oystercatcher, ringed plover, grey plover, golden plover, lapwing, knot, sanderling, dunlin, black-tailed godwit, bar-tailed godwit, curlew, redshank and turnstone. (Source: Waterbirds in the UK 2004 / 05 – The Wetland Bird Survey, published by BTO, WWT, RSPB, and JNCC)
• Ten percent of the UK’s saltmarshes are found in The Wash. This habitat, which is being lost elsewhere in the UK, is a natural sea defence which is far more effective than built barriers or sea walls. The creeks and channels within the saltmarsh, along with the vegetation that grows on it, soak up and dissipate wave energy, protecting the land behind it.
• The Wash SSSI occupies 63,135 hectares, and is the largest estuarine system SSSI in the UK.
• No land has been claimed from The Wash since the 1980s. In 2002, a joint project between the Environment Agency and the RSPB used a process known as ‘managed realignment’ to create a new nature reserve at Freiston Shore, turning land that had been claimed and farmed back to saltmarsh. This saltmarsh in part now defends the town of Boston from flooding.
• Much of the Wash itself is very shallow, with several large sandbanks, such as Breast Sand, Bulldog Sand, Roger Sand, and Old South Sand, exposed at low tide. For this reason, navigation in the Wash can be hazardous. However, for this same reason, huge expanses of The Wash are ideal for wading birds who probe into the sand and mudflats with their beaks for food. Similarly, dabbling and diving ducks use areas of The Wash to feed on food stocks such as shellfish.
• The common seal is one of only two seals that occur regularly in UK waters. Almost 80% of the total English population of common seals occurs in The Wash and North Norfolk SAC (2,000 – 2,500 individuals).
• One of the few UK examples of well developed and stable Sabellaria spinosa reefs are found in the mouth of The Wash. These reefs only occur with a high abundance of the tube-building polychaete worm which uses suspended sand grains to form its tubes.