Wallasea Island - 3 questions

[Lowlander]

Hi All!

As many of you will know, the RSPB plan to spend £12 million on a project to flood Wallasea Island in Essex. They want to turn over six square km of productive wheatfields into mudflats and saltmarsh.

The existing wildlife which would be displaced includes badgers, water voles, hares, meadow pipits, corn buntings, skylarks and (in the winter) vast numbers of Brent geese who feed on the farmer's fields.

I walked to the far end of the island yesterday. It was wonderfully peaceful. No traffic, no noise, just the sound of a skylark and the sound of the wind in the wheat.

The RSPB scheme will destroy more than half the island. Can any RSPB's members tell us please if the RSPB consulted membership before embarking on this project? And are there any RSPB members who have misgivings or are even against the scheme?

Why the need to create mudflats? There are already vast areas of mudflats in the Thames Estuary area, about 200 square kilometres of them!

It is easier to see why there may be a need to create more saltmarsh. But if so, why not recreate salt marsh where it has been lost, such as at Higham?. This would not be too difficult, especially with the availability of Crossrail spoil and dredgings from the proposed new container port near Thames Haven.

There is definitely a gap in the conservation movement. We have a very powerful and affluent bird enthusiast group determined to flood the island, and NO organisation yet set up to defend lowland areas endangered by erosion or the threat of rising sea levels. A third and final question: does anyone think such an organisation should be set up?

Thanks. Peter