[IMC-bristol] Comment for SOS.

[ilyan]

It is now about 20 minutes since I sent the comment here to your item 
about Save Our Sands.  It would have come up by now on UK had I sent it 
there but I didn't.   I have put it up as anonymous on indycymru, where 
I put the original article you published.

Science built on Sand
The beaches are not being stripped of sand directly, though people 
living near a beach always did go down to the beach when they needed 
some sand for building, and may have established a right to do so by 
long usage.  People stopped doing that because the sand from the 
offshore banks is much better.  It is what is described as sharp sand.

What is now happening is that millions of tons of sand have been and are 
being taken from the offshore sandbanks.  That changes the topography of 
the sea bed, and causes changes in the tidal flows.  Some people are up 
in arms because their beaches are visibly diminishing.  they blame the 
tide for washing them away to replace the offshore sandbanks.

That may or may not be true.   Hired scientists bought by the sand 
dredging company have done a study of the tidal flows and how the sea 
bed changes.  The results are satisfactory for the Dredgers.

Since my dear friend Margaret was in power almost all scientific 
research and analysis is done directly for commercial firms.  It was 
shown to be a nonsense that scientists should research to find the 
truth.  What they must seek is a patent to ensure profit.  Or that it is 
safe to engage in some profitable activity.

As the Labour party has been taken over by Thatcherites, those policies 
still prevail, and the faked science is as prevalent here as Lysenko's 
was in the USSR.

Much of our Channel sand is exported to Holland as the Dutch are 
determined to protect their beaches.  The stupidity of removing the firm 
sharp sand that makes a good foundation for the offshore windmills and 
allowing the tide to replace it with rounded sand swept from the beaches 
so that a firm base cannot then be established is typical of the UK 
bureaucracy as a whole, and need not be specifically blamed on the Welsh 
Assembly.