Blogs

A few hours ago I sadly posted this blog , setting out our initial reaction to the shocking news that the proposal to extend the famously unsuccessful Lydd airport’s runway has been approved. I also had to tell my 8 year old son who has come to love Dungeness. His face fell – but he rallied...

Today’s shocking decision to approve an extension to Lydd airport in Kent is the latest stage in the sorry saga of attempts to develop the site. We’re very disappointed at the news and are profoundly concerned for the future of one the UK’s most important and iconic wildlife sites....

I get the feeling that this blog is going to be busy over the next few weeks. The budget this week has been picked to pieces by pundits – and I’m not going to add that list, here’s RSPB Conservation Director, Martin Harper, giving his perspective . The budget has raised the temperature...

This blog has just turned two! Some 330 posts later and what have been the big themes? I had a look at the same question a year ago – and here’s how the top ten topics have changed Dungeness – holds on to top spot with 53 posts Special Protection Areas – up one place...

My Dad grew hops in Kent – and as summer eases into autumn, the chill early ‘hopping’ mornings and bright days take me back to the hectic weeks of hop picking. I plucked a small handful of hops from a bine draping itself through a hedge and scrubbled the hops between my hands to release...

My colleagues at the sharp end of our work to save special places from harm are in the midst of one of the busiest periods we can remember (and some of us can remember quite a long way back). I’ve been following the lengthy public inquiry into plans to extend Lydd Airport in Kent (here’s...

A short day - the Inquiry has now been adjourned until tomorrow. Bob Gomes completed his evidence for the RSPB. Giving evidence, in my view, is tougher than any media interview I have ever done! You can feel the weight of the questions and how much hung on every answer. However, Bob 'stepped up for...

As the public inquiry into proposals to develop Lydd Airport continues I’ve set up my online alerts to ping through items to do with the area (I’m getting a lot of mouth-watering recipes for Dungeness crab – but from the west coast of the USA. I didn’t know there was a Dungeness...

The goings on in a Public Inquiry (PI) are not quite ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’, but it is still a formal and legal process with all its associated technical terms and references. My understanding of the most commonly used terms are: Examination-in chief – the witness’s barrister...