Brightlingsea Marina - Now they want to restrict the river!

Cobra

Cobra

Well-Known Member
Joined
4 Jan 2002
Messages
3,269
Location
Brightlingsea but boat in Wivenhoe
Visit site
Yes...there are plans to dredge the Marina and pile geotextile bags full of silt outside, reducing the width of the navigable river by probably 20% although the developer is claiming 15%!
The proposed Marina wall will blight Brightlingsea Harbour and Creek for generations. It will pose a hazard to commercial and leisure craft, affect tidal flows, cause silting or scouring around the Town Hard and Brightlingsea Sailing Club's launching ramp, deter tourism and block a view that's been enjoyed by residents and visitors for generations. The planned wall is at best a short-term solution to the inherent problem of silting in the Colne and surrounding estuaries - with no guarantee as to its effectiveness. Resolving a problem for a private owner should never affect the amenity and enjoyment of a whole community.

We would like the support from visiting yachtsmen who would like to see this foolish idea scrapped.

Please help us by signing and commenting in our on-line petition...if you have visited our river you will understand the issues this could cause!

https://www.change.org/p/marine-man...&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-no_msg&fb_ref=Default
 
I am sorry...

But I don't sign anything until I have read the small print.
The petition makes lots of claims about the possible effects of the proposal but it does not show what is being proposed. Nor does it show why the claimed effects will occur.

Please provide clear and measurable information before asking people to oppose something.
 
Thanks guys! Your support is appreciated!

Tomahawk...Silting as you full well know is caused by mud held in suspension in water. When the water slows or back eddies, the silt is deposited.

We cannot prove that what we are 99% certain, will happen actually will.

Neither can the developers prove conclusively that it will not.

I come from a family that has sailed the Colne now for 4 generations. Knowledge passed from father to son has given me a pretty good idea as to what the likely effect will be.

When Hampstead Homes oh so generously as part of their Marina plan destroyed our old timber and concrete causeway that had been in situ for tens of decades, to gift the town the floating jetty we now have, my late father said "well there goes our nice clean hard..." going on to explain the effect that the tides would now have on the hard...yes...he was bang on the money!

Anyway, you are not a local, it will not directly affect you and it is your prerogative if you wish to put your name to the petition or not. No one will ever think any the less of you for sticking to your own opinion! Please though, don't moan when you try and visit Brightlingsea and you cannot get into the river!!!
 
I would be interested in the opinion of the Harbour Master.'s office. If as is suggested sitting will reduce access for commercial and leisure traffic I would have thought the Harbour Commissioner's would be on the case?

I am sure the HM Steve Chick, as a career Seaman Officer, will have a valid opinion.
 
Alchemist V274 said:
I am sure the HM Steve Chick, as a career Seaman Officer, will have a valid opinion.
Click to expand...

I don't share your confidence in the man's judgement.

There's a clip knocking around on Youtube where he famously claimed - in 2009 - that the piracy situation in Somalia was under control and the worst was behind us.
In fact, the worst was still to come.

He was wrong in 2009 - could very well be wrong about this.
 
Alchemist V274 said:
I would be interested in the opinion of the Harbour Master.'s office. If as is suggested sitting will reduce access for commercial and leisure traffic I would have thought the Harbour Commissioner's would be on the case?

I am sure the HM Steve Chick, as a career Seaman Officer, will have a valid opinion.
Click to expand...
The BHC are another cup of tea altogether Peter! They have shall we say some unusual ideas...if you would like to see the issues that the locals are having with the present crop of commissioners, you need to see the Facebook Page for Brightlingsea Harbour Users.
It would be lovely to say that they have the best interests of the Harbour in their actions, but current evidence is shall we say 'lacking'.

As for Steve Chick...I don't know the chap, having been boatless for the past three years now, so I cannot comment from a personal perspective, but second hand opinion states very much curates egg! A couple of locals reckon he is excellent and a couple reckon that he doesn't care...as I said, I don't know him so will refrain from further comment other than I would expect a time served seaman to be able to see the issues the 'Wall' will create!
 
Cobra said:
Thanks guys! Your support is appreciated!

Tomahawk...Silting as you full well know is caused by mud held in suspension in water. When the water slows or back eddies, the silt is deposited.

We cannot prove that what we are 99% certain, will happen actually will.

Neither can the developers prove conclusively that it will not.

I come from a family that has sailed the Colne now for 4 generations. Knowledge passed from father to son has given me a pretty good idea as to what the likely effect will be.

When Hampstead Homes oh so generously as part of their Marina plan destroyed our old timber and concrete causeway that had been in situ for tens of decades, to gift the town the floating jetty we now have, my late father said "well there goes our nice clean hard..." going on to explain the effect that the tides would now have on the hard...yes...he was bang on the money!

Anyway, you are not a local, it will not directly affect you and it is your prerogative if you wish to put your name to the petition or not. No one will ever think any the less of you for sticking to your own opinion! Please though, don't moan when you try and visit Brightlingsea and you cannot get into the river!!!
Click to expand...

Cobra,
Please don't be condescending and say it does not affect me as I am not a local.

Of course I accept that siltation will happen if water flows are reduced. However, that does not alter my request for information. What exactly is being proposed that we should oppose? The link you provided shown an artist impression of something. Is that in the right place and to scale or is it an impression designed to garner emotional reactions with no relation to the facts? How long, wide, high is the proposed structure? What is it going to be made of? These are the questions I am asking.

In matters such as this, a petition with a lot of signatures that can be shown to be deficient because the people signing it were not aware of the facts, can easily be put aside by decision makers. If in doubt ask Old Harry about his experience regarding Studland. Please offer links to the appropriate applications and document. I am sure that I can support your petition once I can see for myself what I am putting my name to. However I will not sign anything until I have seen for myself.

Separately you say that the developers can't prove it won't cause siltation. I must say I am confused that they can get a license to carry out such works in a river estuary without adequate hydrodynamic modelling. I do know that before the sea wall at Abbotts Hall was breached, there was a lot of modelling work carried out to demonstrate the possible effects on flows and the silt in the river. This was again done at Wallasea part one. I went to presentations by the EA on the subject. I presume there was further work on Wallasea Part Two. Given that the estuary is all part of SSSI, LNR, ESA and every other natural designation available I am given to understand that before any works can proceed, the developers have to demonstrate that the proposal will not have any adverse affects on the designated environmental "assets". Such a demonstration must by the way of things take the effect of possible adverse effects of siltation onto a sand and gravel foreshore into account.
 
Plan view - the yellow outline shows the extent of the area that will be covered almost up to the ground level of the piers:

image.jpg

From the hard the extent of it will look like this:

image.jpg

There will no longer be a view out of the creek from the public jetty or pretty much anywhere around the hard.

There is a very good chance that it will cause silting up of the hard - and if it does then clearly it will be too late, they're not going to remove the damned thing.

It will form a constriction of a busy part of the creek at high tide - having raced from the sailing club at high water last Thursday night I know how useful that bit of water is when you're milling around waiting to start. And that is on an evening when there aren't boats queuing up to berth on the pontoons.

It won't stop the marina from silting up, it will still need dredging - the company who have designed and presented it acknowledge this. Given that it has never been dredged yet there is no reason to suppose that this will change, so x years down the line they will be back in the same situation but with a ruddy great wall.

The Harbour Commission is against it. Some of the flat owners/berth holders are against it.

It is the cheapest short-term 'fix' to make the marina see more attractive (to those with short sight) so that the bank can get shot of it. That is all they care about.
 
Not good. As you say it will silt up pronto as there is no through flow in the marina. IS there some idea to build further flats onto the area that is next to the visitors pontoon? Clearly the yellow line covers a large area and is sufficient to allow for further flats to be built.

They will have to get planning consent.
I would suggest asking for a condition demanding a bail bond to pay for any unforeseen (to them) externalities such as siltation of the hard. If there are any further flats being built, they would offer the opportunity to demand "developer contributions" (AKA development tax) to pay for such an eventuality. Perhaps that could linked to an ongoing maintenance fee subject to aS106..

In the meanwhile, where is the source documentation
 
There is no known plan to build flats on the 'extension' - it is built from bags of silt with rock armour. The original planning application for the development did include building on that area (as well as being 5 storeys high instead of the current 3) but it was refused (on what grounds I don't know). They say they will apply for planning permission from TDC and a licence from the MMO early in July.

At the 'public consultation meeting' there was a 2 page handout, presumably these are still available from the Town Council. Here is a poor photo of their top view with dimensions:

image.jpg

There are some spurious claims, such as "The design shows that the width of the structure only decreases the width of the estuary from the current front of the marina to the nearest part of the St Osyth headland by approximately 15%" -this conveniently ignores the fact that the navigable channel is only a portion of the total width due to the pontoons.
 
I've taken pics of the handout and put them in a public album on Photobox, not sure how well this will work:

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/3515518210

The document was produced by the company tasked with designing (and presumably implementing) it so I would not describe it as independent. Clearly it is in the interests of their business for it to go ahead.
 
Were I the developer, that entrance way looks just perfect for a lock, or at least a rise 'n fall cill.
And after that, a waiting pontoon, making the channel even narrower.
Some might see it as progress, but I strongly doubt that view is shared by the boating community.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top