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Press Release - 7th August 2007
Bunn Leisure is forced to install its own sea defences
Bunn Leisure, perhaps Selsey’s largest employer, was forced to take action to protect its leisure facilities and caravan park at Medmerry, by applying for planning consent to build its own coast defences.
SOS has been fully supportive of the proposals, and actively lobbied in support of the application.
Firstly, it is quite clear that urgent action is needed to protect this frontage. The Environment Agency’s maintenance of Medmerry beach has become increasingly ineffectual. In the last 3 years or so their management approach has been to rip out groynes, remove brestworks, and stop adding new shingle. We have made it plain to the Agency that this approach does not work, and have refuted their claims that it is a better way to manage the beach. It doesn’t surprise us that the beach has become weakened and that as a result the caravan park and its leisure facilities are now at risk, unless action is taken.
Secondly, Bunn Leisure is a vital contributor to the wellbeing of the community: in 1999 Portsmouth University found that its activities contributed £50m a year to the District’s economy; it is one of our largest employers, with nearly 300 full time staff; It provides major leisure facilities (10% of Selsey’s population belong to the Oasis swimming pool and fitness centre).
For these reasons SOS considers it essential that Bunn Leisure are permitted to get on with doing a proper job of defending their section of this frontage.
The bigger question is why isn’t there any strategic and financial commitment from the authorities for a similar rock revetment to be placed in front of Selsey’s most exposed sea walls, and along the short vulnerable length of Medmerry Beach which is outside the scope of the Bunn Leisure works?
Such works, or an offshore reef that gave similar protection (with the added possibility of improved fisheries and green energy production), would give our community decades of peaceful co-existence with the sea.
Planning consent has now been granted to Bunn Leisure, but Natural England has objected to the use of barges to transport the boulders to the beach.
These barges place a rod into the beach to stabilise their position just prior to dropping the boulders. Natural England say the rod will damage the clay formations on the beach, which form part of the SSSI. It’s true that a few small holes would be made in the clay, but a child playing with a bucket and spade would probably do more damage. If this issue can’t be resolved, the thousands of tons of rock will have to be transported by road to the site! This would increase costs, increase carbon emissions, and lead to completely unnecessary congestion on the B2145.
We hope common sense prevails.
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