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Part of a Press Release I received today.

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 will be 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,"
Richard continued.

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.

That is terrible! I don't understand how anyone could think of doing something like this, and have the arrogance to call it reclaiming land! Do you know how the proposal went down? I hope it sunk like a rock.

The press release was printed in my local paper and covered on local radio but I haven't heard anything further. I don't think it will get off the ground myself, but I do think it's a measure of how seriously the professional conservationists are taking the threat when the RSPB, the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust get together to issue a joint press release condemning the proposal before the proposal has even been launched.

It sounds like it has so much opposition that it'll never get off the ground. I certainly hope that is the case!

I find myself asking what his real plans are? He can't possibly think that this scheme will go anywhere, so does he think that by agreeing to back down on this, that he can do some nefarious harm elsewhere in exchange?

Kingfisher

Hi, just joined.
I am horrified at these plans to dam the wash. It's history repeating itself.
In 1837 a guy named Henry Calthorpe did the same at Cley Next the Sea with disastrous results.
Cley harbour was said to be one of the largest and busiest ports in Britain but despite warnings and legal protests, he persisted in draining the salt marsh for agricultural use. The river Glaven and the harbour quickly silted up and became unusable.
If you go to Cley today you can still see where the harbour used to be and inside St Margarets church are paintings of enormous sailing ships anchored in the harbour. It destroyed the village economy completely. On the other side of the harbour, at Wiveton church you can still see the grooves in the church wall that were cut by the thick ropes used to moor ships.
What a terrible shame if the port of Kings Lynn were to suffer the same fate. Surely this cannot be allowed to happen.
Mr Goob

The very same thing has been going on for the last 30 years or so where i used to live, the Morecambe Bay Barrage. Again the bay is an important area for overwintering birds. I too do not think that the Wash scheme will go ahead, there will be far too much opposition to it, the area is far to important and even if they make it a surge barrier so that the tides still go through it as mentioned the natural currents of the tide are disruped and the cahnges will only be for the worse.
I wonder what hair-brained idea they will come up with next, mabye a barrier ar either end of the channel to make a big marina.

Hi Mr Goob, welcome to the forums. I completely agree that this sounds like a case of history repeating itself. I sincerely hope it doesn't and that someone has learnt the lessons of the past. I would be disastrous if this went ahead.

It seems preposterous that this could go ahead, but it would be dangerous to underestimate the potential of people like this to damage our environment. I would urge everyone to contact the organisations that are fighting this proposal to add their voices to the fight and to write to the local MPs in the area to argue against this mad idea - sometimes people power can make a real difference!

these schemes now get support because of the very real threat of climate change - anything goes.

look at the Lewis wind farm proposal and the Severn barrage proposal for a couple of outrageous schemes. private companies would get public funding through the government to build these schemes, when smaller, better placed and sensitive schemes would produce the same amount of carbon neutral energy with little or no environmental impact.

thank goodness that the RSPB is on the case - unfortunately they then have to spend money to fight them. If only big business would talk to NGOs like the RSPB before they come up with these mad schemes, they could be directed to constructive ones instead and we would not have to spend our time campaigning against them..... oh well, one can only hope