Hayle Beach, Cornwall

I thought that you might like to know about our campaign to stop the
destruction of a Cornish Beach and the surrounding environment. We would
appreciate any help that you can give us in promoting our campaign. Further
details can be found Please visit our we site at www.soshayle.fsnet.co.uk
where people can also sign our petition and email support.

Hayle beach in Cornwall lies at the southernmost part of St Ives Bay. About
three years ago the owners of Hayle Harbour embarked on the commercial
extraction of sand from the area which has had, and is continuing to have a
catastrophic effect on the beach and dunes.

Following an SOS Campaign a coastal processes study was commissioned by the
District Council which the harbour owners agreed to abide by. The study
concluded that sand extraction should cease - the harbour owners have
decided to carry on digging anyway despite there previous agreement.

Pressure from SOS and English Nature resulted in a Section 18 Notice being
placed on the beach - a law which we hoped would compel the owners to cease
sand removal - it has not - despite our success in achieving the order
digging has continued.

In the meantime the Harbour Company was declared bankrupt and was bought out
by the Dutch developer and investment company ING. Their first action has
been to do to their corporate layers and effectively overturn the section 18
notice so that they can resume sand mining by insisting that sand must be
cleared for navigation purposes. This is despite the fact that the fishermen
of Hayle say such sand removal in unnecessary and indeed INGs digging
operations are actually making things worse.

SOS now believes that the only way forward is to compulsory purchase the
harbour in order to take it our of the hands of developers who have
consistently watched over the degradation of the harbour for 25 years. If
brought into public ownership SOS would seek a sensible regeneration of the
harbour facilities and permanent protection for the beach. The authorities
are slowly coming round to our point of view.


Please help us to protect our small part of the planet by signing or
petition and/or writing in support via our web site at
www.soshayle.fsnet.co.uk It will only take a couple of minutes and will
help to protect this important Cornish beach forever.

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