The Wetlands Centre
Have been asked to publish the following on the blog:
"On Wednesday 21st March in
Friday 2 March addition to this post: I now have the poster for this event and will quote it in full:
EDDC Countryside Service The Truth About the Marshes
Everything you wanted to know about a wetland but were too afraid to ask.
An introduction to the proposed Axe Estuary Wetland project, meet the officers behind East Devon's ambitious new wildlife attraction. Find out what will happen, where and when.
Tea, coffee and cakes, 10-3 pm, 21st March at the Town Hall, 23rd March at the bird hide.
Stand Up For Seaton has no objection to the creation of a Wetlands Centre in principle. HOWEVER, many of you will recall the first presentation on 1 November 2006 when it was stated that the money for this project would come from lottery applications and grants. It later (i.e. only a couple of weeks later) transpired that, in fact, it is also to be funded by Section 106 money from Liatris (with no consultation with the people of Seaton whatsover) thus depriving us of community facilities. (Sorry, I must not forget - we are being told we might get a small "room" which must triple up for use as a gym, nursery AND meeting room).
Karime Hassan and Kate Little seem to think that the Wetlands project is a suitable substitute for the swimming pool, nursery, meeting facilities, gym and youth centre (which itself housed also bowls, table tennis, ballroom dancing, other indoor events and acted as a changing room for the Grizzly).
Any questions?
posted by Fighting for East Devon's future @ 10:26 am
10 Comments:
this will subsequently be said by EDDC to be the "consultation" that shows Seaton wants Section 106 money spent spent on the megamarsh. I'm sure they have written the press release already.
Why do we need a megamarsh. The land and existing marshes support a wide variety of wildfowl. If the privately owned land is maintained in its existing state I see no need for change. I guess the big idea is to put in access paths and Hides so that people can get up close to observe the birds but at the same time this will give easy access to those people who wish to disturb and vandlise the environment, so no net gain in my view. But I am sure that there has been a detailed analysis by EDDC of the benefits in concert with Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust etc?
the exisiting management of the nature reserves has meant a vast increase in the number and variety of birds. If you're really interested buy a copy of the Axe Estuary and Seaton Bay bird report - to be published in March. They will create more habitats, including open water, reed beds, scrapes these will bring in more birds and more birds means more birders - spending money in Seaton. A megamarsh will be good for tourism. Work has already begun on creating a reed bed at Colyford Common.
But who is more important - residents or tourists if money - from the Regeneration Area which is supposed to replace LOST facilities - is finite? We already have a contribution to the Visitor Centre and supposedly affordable housing from EDDC - and nothing at all for community facilities save a small multi-function "room" - possibly.
I was also told by a couple of Seaton birdwatcher at our two day event that when they go bird watching they take their soup and sandwiches and spend nothing in the towns near the reserves they visit.
We are talking about an expected 30,000 visitors a year (around 80 per day). And for this we are being made to sacrifice much-needed - indeed, essential, community facilities.
By all means use lottery money, involve Wetlands Trust, RSPB, Devon Wildlife Trust, volunteer fund-raising, etc to build and maintain a Wetlands Centre, but please don't starve the town of its quality of life to achieve the Wetlands Centre.
And just remember, that if global warming is an issue (as in raising the flood plain 2-3 metres for a 75 year flood risk) we won't have ANY Wetlands at all when our grandchildren are our age.
I fully appreciate the need for conservation and providing protected breeding habitats for birds but standard of living and quality of life of residents is equally if not more important. My view is that the focus of resources should be primarily for the benefit of the Community. The projected benefits to the Town and surrounding area of a major influx of birders is debatable. By definition the hobby involves being self sufficient in the rural environment and the only guarantee that money will be spent is on parking fees, although as you are no doubt aware the majority park for free along the river side.
Do bear in mind that the car parking fees will not benefit Seaton or East Devon District Council. They will be for the supermarket.
True that in some places the supermarket shares the profit with the district council for a year or two, but that soon stops.
There will be no benefit to Seaton from car parking charges.
This differs from, say, Budleigh Salterton where the town owns its own car park (where people can park for free) and which the town owns. The lease is about to come up for renewal and EDDC will probably renew it so Budleigh Salterton council will continue to own it.
Only yesterday I asked Mark Williams, Chief Executive of EDDC, whether we could do something similar in Seaton and he said probably not. Nothing new there then!
how much birders spend in a local area depends on how far they have travelled to get there. At the moment Seaton's reserves do not attract the variety of bird life that draws many people to stay here. Improving the reserves would draw in more people. They do not all bring soup and sandwiches - ask a wider range of local birders or talk to places like the Isles of Scilly who make a good profit from birders. They can not all park by the river nor would they want to do so to visit the new expanded reserve.
I do not suggest this is funded by redevlopment of Seaton. The point I was making is that work has already begun. This is good news for Seaton. More work can go ahead WITHOUT redevelopment in Seaton. As for the car parking that is for EDDC to sort out if the land is developed. They could keep the fees if they negotiated a suitable deal.
I'm sorry but car parking will NOT be for EDDC to sort out in the regeneration area. The council agreed in November 2006 that on the day that planning permission is granted the council will immediately sell its land to the developer "to facilitate development".
This means that it will be up to the developer to sort out car parking - and we all know what that means.
And can you imagine the message we send to tourists when we tell them to park in a supermarket car park for no more than 3 hours.
Yes, many people do park by the roadside in Axmouth. But will they still do this if, across the road, are around 150 houses on the old Racal site. The disturbance from that could mean that the birds will move upriver, where car parking will not be an option
EDDC agreed to negotiate the sale of its land to the developer to facilitate the development. That is a statement of intent but not a detailed contract. There should still be scope to negotiate what the council gets in exchange - and that could include the car park or at least the long stay element of it.
I am very interested in what I have heard of Community Land Trusts. I should like to see ownership of the visitor's centre and any community buildings on the site vested in such a Trust and not with EDDC.
The trouble is, we see all over the country examples of where the likes of Tesco walk all over councils bigger and braver than ours.
I would be interested in a Community Land Trust that included as a minimum at least 1,500 sq m for the Visitor Centre, a large proportion of affordable housing and a community facility all built sustainably.
After that - and only after that - should we be thinking about about supermarkets (if we really must) and wetlands centres.
We have to get the cake right before we start talking abou icing.
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