The Lincolnshire Bird Club

An email from Geoff Williams


There is a press release on the LWT website about the proposed Donna Nook realignment scheme. If anyone is interested in having a nature reserve there it is suggested that people show their support on the East Lindsey District Council website. It is feared it may be turned down because of opposition to the scheme.
Comments have to be in by 30th December 2009 so it doesn't give us much time.
See www.lincstrust.org.uk/news/press-releas ... rticle=392

If anyone wants to see the plans they are on display at North Somercotes Village Hall until 4 pm today (saturday 2 Jan). There is an opportunity to fill in a form with opinions on the scheme.

Bill

I was down at Donna Nook today doing a TTV and spoke with Drew who is organising the local protest against the scheme. He said the planning application is being heard on 22 April. He claimed that both Natural England and RSPB had objected to the scheme, the latter allegedly on the grounds that the plans would not be good for birds. Apparently both withdrew the objections following discussions with the Environment Agency.

I assume if this information is accurate that these must have been some kind of tactical objections used to secure better conditions. Does anyone have any idea what has been happening?

By the way there is still time to comment on the plans should anyone wish to.

I've answered my own question on this to some extent by delving on the ELDC website in respect of the planning application which has all the plans, and comments from consultees as well as residents.

The RSPB consultee letter is on there though finding it is like looking for a Spoonbill Sandpiper on the Minjiang Estuary.

Broadly the RSPB support the application with 2 key caveats. They are concerned at the disruption to Brent Goose and Golden Plover feeding and roosting sites and suggest alternative areas should be provided. Also they don't think the Little Tern proposals would be sufficient to be regarded as replacement sites for the Easington colony when the need arises.

Its not apparent what the EA has said to RSPB that has alleviated those concerns.

I hadn't appreciated that with 45,000 or so birds the Humber is the no 1 UK wintering site for Golden Plover. I saw 16 today doing my TTV!

I have had a letter from East Lindsey council saying that planning permission for the new nature reserve has been turned down as they consider agricultural land is more important than a nature reserve.

been told by the previous landowner there is a 6 month timescale for interested parties to appeal,

terry whalin

Totally incredible but probably no more than you would expect -- having spent a rather large amount of money in the scheme it is to be hoped that EA will carry it further but with huge budget cuts in the offing it may be a project that is easier dropped than carried forward? Whatever the outcome EA have bought the land and as such are the owners, as I understand it, so on a birding front even if they cave in to pressure and allow the land to revert to pointless wheat production there are surely areas around the remnant trees at Pyes Hall that could make a very good coastal migrant hot spot with a little judicious planting and management. Is this a very good time for Lincs birdwatchers to become proactive and actually agree to do a little tree planting and habitat creation for their own rarity watching benefit? A few days a year for a combined force of 100 birdwatchers?

I did suggest to the EA that the Pyes Hall hedge should be protected by building a bank around it but they said,salt water seepage would likely kill the trees and bushes.
I would have thought that even though planning permission was turned down the EA could still go ahead with creating wader scrapes etc as part of the government farm enhancement scheme, as they have done at Saltfleetby St Clement (even put in a bird hide there).

desperate for wader scrapes in the north east of the county, if they had turned it down because of access concerns i could understand but scrapes and keep the trees at pyes sounds better than the original plan to me, i could cope with that !!!

terry whalin

The difficulty is that wader scrapes were not a feature of the plan, allegedly because of RAF concern that these would attract additional flocks of birds that would present bird strike hazards. They are therefore unlikley to agree to do them now and it would need planning permission, which they might not get.

Also if they were to do what Graham suggests now (and their plan was to totally destroy Pyes Hall by taking out everything 40 m either side of the existing channel) they would create a bigger lobby against destroying Pyes Hall at the time they finally get permission/cash to carry out their plan, so I suspect that is not going to happen though I agree with the sentiment of activising a large body of birders to do something constructive.

A better idea now might be to work with LWT to create habitat in a spot on the Donna Nook reserve that could replace Pyes Hall a number of years down the line, assuming it will disappear sooner or later.

Or perhaps a series of them at 1 mile intervals from the coast to the wolds, depending how strong your view is that climate change will cause dramatiuc sea level rise over the next 100 years. Certainly if the EA do get permission to do their plan it would be worth liaising with LWT to creat a new Pyes Hall on the line of the new sea wall, if that is not already what the land scape plan might involve.