Last updated 12:13, Saturday, 05 April 2008

SOMEONE once said that if the council was going to waste money it may as well be on our doorstep.

This is all well and good but when a matching amount is obtained from English Nature and the public are not informed of what is about to happen it is a sad state of affairs.

I am referring to the enclosure of the sand dunes to the north of Beckfoot on the Maryport to Silloth Road.

I am told, and so are many others, that it is to stop gypsies camping on the land.

What a load of rubbish, yet gullible people seem to accept this.

The travellers simply move from place to place and if one place is fenced in they simply go elsewhere.

Are they going to fence in all the open ground from Maryport Golf Course to Blitterlees, the so called Solway 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'?

Just imagine the outcry if they were to erect pig wire and barbed wire fences in the New Forest, Yorkshire Dales, the Scottish Highlands or nearer at home in the Lake District, Caldbeck, Skinburness or the Burgh marshlands in the upper Solway Estuary.

So why here?

These fences are not in keeping with the area and although other parties have constructed similar eyesores in the past 50 years or so this is no reason why the habit should continue, especially in these days of the changing Rights to Roam legislation.

At the moment the land is open without pernicious weeds ragwort, thistles and docks growing along the roadside, but they will soon arrive as the fence matures.

So will the litter, blown up from the beach to mar this beautiful landscape.  

I am told that they want to graze animals on this land just as they do at Caldbeck and in the Lake District, but we live on a race track.

For goodness sake where has intelligence gone for those in charge of decisions being made?

Put a speed restriction on the road so that visitors and tourists can drive through this designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and appreciate what we have.

Cyclists and walkers, and there are many of them, would also feel safer.

I have pointed this out to the decision makers and also highway department officers, yet it is like water off a duck's back.

If they consider that the road from Maryport to Cockermouth or the Wigton bypass should be restricted to 50mph give me one good reason why there is no limit on the coast road.

It is farcical, and one party even said that if there was a speed restriction there would be no need to fence the road.

If we are supposedly going to try to develop tourism in the Solway Plain it is essential that those making major decisions on the appearance of the place  think about what will enhance the beauty of the area and not just create eyesores.

Petitions are now in place and it is apparent that hundreds if not thousands of people share my views and are enraged by this rape of the coastal plain. Please write and support our appeal.

BILL JAMES

Bank Mill Nurseries and Visitors Centre,

Beckfoot