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21 April

The good news just keeps coming. Must be the onrush of spring. Bluebells are out in the woods, the flowers are forming on my elder tree, swans are nesting on the river and now the government has rejected a hideous port development that was planned for the edge of the New Forest, in Dibden Bay, Southampton. Dibden Bay is a key wildlife site with four separate European, national and local conservation orders on it, a major centre for overwintering birds and a place of tranquil beauty in an increasingly industrial landscape. So it made perfect sense that the massive Associated British Ports corporation (ABP), which owns the land, wanted to slap a £600 million container port on it. Thousands of local residents, the local MP, English Nature, the Ramblers Association, the Countryside Agency and New Forest District Council objected, and it seems they won the day.

Can you guess, by the way, what the ABP spokesman said about the development? Can you guess what his rationale was for the mindless destruction of such a priceless place? Go on - take a wild stab in the dark. That's right - its construction was 'vital for the British economy.' Whenever you hear that phrase, be very afraid - you can be sure that evil is being done somewhere, usually by someone fat and pasty with an army of shareholders baying at his heels.

Well yah boo snooks to you, ABP, for this time justice has been done. Excuse me if I seem a little over-excited, but there's so little good news in the world of the committed greenie that when it does come along it's worth indulging in fully.

So take a deep breath, let it out slowly and calmly, smile very widely, and then go here to read more about what might have been but thankfully never was.

Posted by paul at April 21, 2004 04:48 PM

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