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Black Rock
Cliffs
The cliffs before council
work started - Hoary Stock in the foreground - people walking along the
undercliff path
Currently, the undercliff
walk from the Marina to
Rottingdean is closed. The sea defences
are being strengthened to cope with higher sea levels and the
increasing
incidence of storms. This entails new
groynes, plus raising of the promenade and sea wall.
The work is due to finish later this year,
when the route should be re-opened. However,
this job masks a far more disturbing issue, which
has its
origins in some cliff falls in late 2000 at the Marina. The sorry state of affairs means that the
undercliff walk may not be opened after all!
The exceptional rains
that fell, virtually
unabated, throughout the autumn and winter of 2000, totally saturated
the local
cliffs and late in the year there were two cliff falls behind the Marina. In such situations, the Council closes the
path and employs abseilers to knock off any loose material and then
scrape up
and cart away the fallen chalk, before re-opening the path.
Perhaps due to the larger
scale event, or
an over-zealous engineer, this time the Council brought in large
excavators
with long arms to reach up and down the cliff to “make safe”. This job scraped clean a 400 metre section of
cliff, destroying all plant life and sea-bird habitat.
It also exposed natural fissures in the
chalk, and with the rains continuing into the spring of 2001, the
waterlogged
cliffs became highly unstable. The heavy
machines caused cracks at the top of the cliffs and, due to the limited
reach
of the excavator arms, left vulnerable overhangs in the middle of the
cliff-face, one directly behind Asda. Not
surprisingly there were then a series of further falls
– 14 in all,
most impressively, in April 2001, which took out the Asda store.
By this time
the Council
had been stopped
by English Nature, Government’s wildlife watchdog.
The cliffs are safeguarded in law; this is
the first breach of the 2000 Countryside and Rights of Way Act –
initiated to
strengthen wildlife protection! The
Council made a planning application to itself (as landowner, coast
protection
authority and planning authority), which it approved. This was to complete the job with
rock-bolting and meshing of the cliffs. BUWG
objected and sought a call-in. This was
turned down. But,
English Nature did object to this work being extended west to the Black
Rock
raised beach section (the honeycomb coombe rock, containing Woolly
Mammoth and
other pre-historic fossils, one of the best cliff exposures in Europe). The extra weight of this swung the case and
the application was called in for a public inquiry.
The cliffs after council intervention -
cliff cut right back to fenceline - path unusable - cliffs meshed - no
seabird nest sites
This was held in the last
week of January
2004 and BUWG duly presented its evidence (71 pages + oral presentation
and
cross-examination). Engineering experts
from both sides argued their cases and other issues such as public
access and
safety, amenity, geology, wildlife, etc were aired.
The inspector’s report went to the Office of
the Deputy Prime Minister, with the result in May.
The planning application was granted, but
with conditions stopping the Council’s cliff-meshing.
Now What?
BUWG argues that the undercliff
walk should be managed as
it always has
been – risk assessed and temporarily closed at vulnerable times
(safeguarding
the rare plants and nesting seabirds). The
Council wishes to mesh the cliffs (so, no wildlife and
no visible
cliff profile) to feel more secure about safety (even though the A259
is far
more a hazard!). English Nature wants to
ensure the integrity of this unique geological feature, so no obscuring
by
mesh.
There is one more part to
this saga – the
development plans of the Marina. At the time of the
Council’s planning application secret talks were going on about
extensive new
building at the Asda end of the Marina. BUWG has subsequently
learned that a huge residential development is planned – a new Asda
built on
top of the existing car park and blocks of flats on top of that. Is the Council really interested in walkers
on the undercliff walk? Or, is there a
more pressing financial / political reason for “making safe” the cliffs
here
(and they’re not thinking of any engineering works further east, where
the
cliffs are much more vulnerable due to the sea)!
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Is there a way
forward?
For decades, this has been a
really popular walk for people in the Brighton area. We can
escape the town and walk, safely and comfortably, along the wide path
between the cliffs and the sea. Children ride their bikes;
families can stroll with pushchairs and toddlers; there are no cars;
the seascape is
beautiful - and it is free. It
is hard to lose such a facility because of poor decision-making,
mis-management or bad practice. The city council needs to
know what we want and what we don't want.
- We want the path to be re-opened when the sea-defence work
is completed
- We want the undercliff walk to be managed as it was in the
past
- We don't want huge developments at the Marina - if we
have to have a Marina then lets have a Marina!
- (not the vast supermarkets, events halls and high-rise flats of
Anytown,UK)
- We want to make our own minds up about whether or not it is
safe to walk along the undercliff - (please don't worry about us,
Nanny, we are grown up!)
Help
Re-open the Undercliff Walk
Please write to your local councillors. We have included a list of all ward councillors along with a draft letter, for your information.
Please use the draft letter if you are busy, but if you can re-write
the letter in your own words then it will have much greater impact.
Letters can be addressed to: Councillor..... at Kings House, Grand
Avenue, HOVE, BN3 2LS. Please also send copies to the Evening Argus,
local walking or rambling groups, or anyone else who you think would
want to voice their opinion about the permanent closure of this public
amenity.
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