News

Read Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Folkestone and Hythe, Damian Collins in the Hawkinge Gazette while Michael Howard is on holiday.

This year, like many families, we’ve enjoyed spending part of our summer holiday at home in Kent. Despite the variable weather there is huge amount to see and enjoy in our beautiful landscape, and this coming bank holiday weekend offers a large number of attractions and events across Shepway.

On Monday I met with Bob Gomes, the Site Manager for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Dungeness, along with Samantha Dawes and Paul Outhwaite from the RSPB’s South East England office, and Shepway District Councillor, Michael Lyons.

The RSPB site is part of the Dungeness National Nature Reserve, one of the most important of its kind in the country, and given its geographical position it is a natural haven for many migrating birds. Bob Gomes led us on a tour of the hides and walks and we were very fortunate to see the Marsh Harriers that have been protected at the reserve, and are amongst only 360 breeding pairs of the birds in the whole country.

The reserve welcomes over 30,000 visitors a year, and as well as attracting birdwatchers of all levels of knowledge, the RSPB also provides walks and activities for families and educational visits for schools. You can find out more about these and the reserve by visiting their website www.rspb.org.uk/dungeness.

The reserve, situated as it is next to the power station, the communities of Lydd, Greatstone and Dungeness, and of course being near to Lydd Airport, is a great example of how thanks to the skills and dedication of the staff and volunteers, nature can continue flourish in the right environment.

It is also a reminder of the importance of getting the balance right between the need to provide jobs and opportunities for the local communities to flourish, and protecting what is best about our countryside for future generations to enjoy. Particularly in a unique landscape like Dungeness.

In the next few years, the decisions over the future of Lydd Airport and nuclear power at Dungeness will be important for the resources and infrastructure of the whole area. We should not turn our back to the opportunities they could bring, but at the same time, we must ensure there is careful scrutiny of the potential impact to the local environment.