I read this speech when I was feeling disappointed by the decision by Shepway District Council in Kent to approve the development of Lydd Airport – and it lifted my mood. I’d watched the webcast from the council chamber in Folkestone into the night and you could see from the tenor of the debate that approval was the likely outcome.
The speech was made by the new European Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik. It’s a very good speech and sets out why this year, dubbed International Year of Biodiversity, is critical if we in the UK and across the rest of Europe are to address the loss of the variety of life on Earth. High ideals – but only possible if the unique natural environment of real places like the Dungeness peninsula in Kent is put at the heart of decision making.
Dungeness has taken a bruising over the decades. Uncontrolled housing development, gravel extraction, leisure facilities, nuclear power stations, military training have all taken their toll on the nature of the place. Shepway District Council’s decision has increased the risk that the airport expansion will be the next development to batter this fragile environment; our campaign to give this special place a positive and secure future continues – but the campaign continues as we press for the decision to be ‘called in’ as a step towards a full public inquiry.
Jack and I visited Dungeness at the weekend. Sun and biting cold as a wind, my Mother would have described as sneaky, blustered in from the east. The landscape was freeze-dried with water levels high after the lashing rain at the end of February. We went partly because we often do, but mainly because I needed to go after the disappointing council decision. As we left Lydd and drove towards the ness itself, the birds seem to play a larger part in the landscape. A cloud of starlings lifted from fields at the edge of our reserve, small flocks of wigeon flew over the road in transit from one part of the reserve to another and gulls casually rode the wind.
Jack’s voice from the back; ‘Daddy, how do the birds know where to come?’ What a good question, I thought, as I struggled for an answer to the perceptive questioning of a five year old. ‘Well, it’s partly because of where Dungeness is – sticking out into the sea, partly because of all the work to look after it and partly because there aren’t many great places left for wildlife’ I replied. Jack seemed happy with that. He gets why Dungeness is a special place – well worth coming to for an ‘hadventure’. I you haven't visited Dungeness - now would be a very good time.
And to finish – a small good news story from our Dungeness nature reserve. A bittern that was struggling to survive the cold winter weather was nursed back to health by the RSPCA – and here it is being released on the reserve.
I think the person who bothered me most was probably a teacher. She seemed to think the airport extension would be good for her to place students from the college where she worked and thought the noise would be acceptable for the children at Greatstone Primary School. From experience, the noise is never acceptable in schools for young children. Everything stops because you can't hear anything else but the aircraft as it reaches maximum thrust immediately before & during take-off. The flow of explanations, conversations & story telling is destroyed in an instant & that time, & the time taken to restore them, is time lost from a child's education.