Dungeness under threat ... again

Hello friend of Dungeness! Thank you for your previous objections and comments regarding the proposal to excavate shingle from the Dungeness nature reserve (made via the www.lovedungeness.org website). Your involvement in our campaign has helped keep the application at bay thus far (thank you); however, the applicants continue to pursue their quarry and recently submitted additional information to Kent County Council regarding their plans [1]. This information once again reveals that the applicants haven’t changed their plans at all. More alarmingly, the applicants also conceded at a recent public meeting that the twelve-year term of their planning application could be insufficient, and they may want to extend the operational life of the quarry beyond this! [2] Dungeness is the world’s largest shingle structure and is the most diverse and extensive stable vegetated shingle in Europe. Excavating shingle from Dungeness would damage this internationally important and environmentally diverse habitat for generations. Both Lydd Town Council and New Romney Town Council have twice opposed the application for a quarry at Dungeness due to the fact that it is flawed—and, with some 70 lorry movements expected across the Dungeness nature reserve each day when the quarry is operational, our local MP (Mr Damian Collins) has stated that we are “right to be concerned about the number of proposed vehicular movements”.

We only have a couple of days to voice our concerns with the new information and reconfirm our objections to the quarry—and it would help enormously if you could send Kent County Council a message too. You can do so via our website (or email Kent County Council: planning.applications@kent.gov.uk). Feel free to use the email we’ve drafted to Kent County Council below, regarding the latest information from the applicants. Thanks again for your help protecting the Dungeness Nature Reserve from the proposed quarry. Please share this email with anybody you think may be interested (or alert them via our website).

Click here to send Kent County Council a message via our website [1] In case you missed it, the new information is available to view online – just search for the application number “KCC/SH/0381/2011” on Kent County Council’s website at http://tinyurl.com/kentplanning and click on the “Documents” tab. The new information has a filing date of November 2013. [2] From the Meeting of the Planning and Environment Committee held in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, New Romney on Wednesday, 25 September. Minutes available online at http://tinyurl.com/oebwql4

Draft response to Kent County Council (use as you please) I write to oppose planning application KCC/SH/0381/2011, which seeks permission to excavate shingle from Dungeness in Kent, and to object to the recent submission made by the applicants (as published on the Authority’s website with a filing date of 5 November 2013). The applicants’ state in their recent submission that their proposal will have only “Minor/negligible” effects and result in a “Low/negligible” magnitude of change on the Dungeness nature reserve. If the proposal is allowed to proceed, large-scale shingle extraction operations will clearly be heard and visible from across the nature reserve and the 70 lorry movements proposed per day will dangerously crowd the narrow road that winds through it. The quarry will obviously have more significant effects and greater impacts than the applicants’ suggest on this fragile Natura 2000 site, which is protected by the Habitats Regulations and the Authority’s own planning policies. Dungeness is internationally important for its physiography, flora and fauna. Whether standing on its vast stone beaches surrounded by intense light and bright blue skies, or walking in the low coastal mist that makes the sky and the stones appear completely grey, the experience is always exhilarating and breath-taking. Permitting a quarry in this special environment—which is heavily protected by national and international nature conservation designations—would rob Kent of one of the jewels in its crown and set an extremely worrying precedent for other special and supposedly protected areas in Britain. It is clear from both the application and the applicants’ remarks at a recent public meeting that the proposal to excavate shingle in Dungeness is poorly considered and inappropriate. (The applicants even acknowledged at a Meeting of the Planning and Environment Committee held in New Romney on Wednesday, 25 September, that the twelve-year term of their planning application could be insufficient, and they may want to extend the operational life of the quarry in the Dungeness Nature Reserve beyond this.) The proposed quarry would change the unique character of Dungeness for generations to come and won't provide local communities with the effective long-term flood protection they need. I ask you to reject the application and to push the applicants to pursue a more effective and sustainable alternative that does not involve Dungeness.

Support Dungeness Nature Reserve ....

Photo Kent Wildlife Trust
Please restate your objection to the quarry at Dungeness...


Hello there,

If you have previously submitted objections to Kent County Council about the proposal to excavate shingle from the Dungeness Nature Reserve then you should have received a letter from them recently, as the applicants have submitted further information on their plan*. Despite many more pages of information, the applicants haven’t actually changed their plan in any material way... They still intend to operate heavy machinery and to excavate shingle from a beautiful open section of the Kent coastline—and their plans now clash with a Coastal Access Path that Natural England is developing to join Camber to Folkestone so that we can enjoy many more miles of coastline.

We only have a couple of days to restate our objections to the proposal—and it would help our campaign enormously if you could send Kent County Council another message too. You can do so via our website at http://www.lovedungeness.org/add-your-voice/options/1306/ (or email Kent County Council directly at planning.applications@kent.gov.uk). Feel free to use the email we’ve drafted to Kent County Council below, regarding the latest information from the applicants.

Thanks again for your help protecting the Dungeness Nature Reserve from the proposed shingle excavation works. Please share this email with anybody you think may be interested (or alert them to our campaign via our website at http://www.lovedungeness.org/add-your-voice/tell-others/).

*In case you missed it, the new information is available to view online – just search for the application number “KCC/SH/0381/2011” on Kent County Council’s website at http://tinyurl.com/kentplanning and click on the “Documents” tab. The new information has filing dates spanning May and June 2013.

Draft response to Kent County Council (use as you please)


I write to state my objection to planning application KCC/SH/0381/2011, which seeks permission to excavate shingle from the shore of Dungeness in Kent.


The applicants' state in their "new" information, as recently published on Kent County Council's planning website, that they discounted extracting shingle from the beach in front of the power station as it is designated within the Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The applicants say that one purpose of the SSSI designation is to protect the special coastal processes that occur in this area - and they note that the SSSI status of the beach in front of the power station can be verified via the mapping tools available on Natural England's website. What the applicants fail to mention, however, is that the very maps that they are now using to define the boundaries of the SSSI also show that the entire site of their proposed quarry in Dungeness is also within the SSSI and the Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Therefore the location cannot be regarded as suitable, as the unique coastal processes that occur where the quarry would be located are also clearly protected. It would set a very worrying precedent if private businesses and corporations (such as EDF Energy, as one of the applicants) are permitted to take material from such a heavily protected conservation area and to disturb such a valuable natural public amenity.


Natural England has also begun work on a Coastal Access Path joining Camber to Folkestone (which is expected to open next year, in 2014). This path will include the Dungeness foreshore and nature reserve, including the very section of coastline where the applicants propose to site their quarry. The benefits of Natural England's coastal path to the public are clear (including the economic benefits that Natural England notes such schemes bring to local communities) - and the coastal path will be a remarkable attraction for residents and visitors to Kent to enjoy all year round. However, it will be blighted by a noisy quarry, where dangerous heavy machinery operates, if the applicants are allowed to excavate shingle from the Dungeness foreshore as they propose.


Dungeness is a varied landscape of international scientific and environmental importance. It is one of only four outstanding Special Areas of Conservation in the United Kingdom that support annual vegetation drift lines, and it hosts a remarkable and unique variety of wildlife, including more than 600 different types of plant (a third of all found in Britain) and many rare insects (some of which aren't found anywhere else in Britain).


The documents recently submitted by the applicants do not materially alter their previous proposals - the proposed quarry would still change the unique character of Dungeness for generations to come and won't provide local communities with the effective long-term flood protection they need. I ask you to reject the application and to push the applicants to pursue a more effective and sustainable alternative that does not involve Dungeness.

Dungeness under threat from shingle quarry

Support the Love Dungeness campaign
"Dungeness – an area of outstanding natural beauty – is at risk. An application has been submitted to Kent County Council seeking consent to excavate shingle from this precious corner of the coast for use in flood defenses in neighbouring counties.

A quarry at Dungeness:

• Will have a significant and adverse effect on the environment
• Will contravene government policy and regulations
• Will not result in better coastal defenses
• Will present a significant health and safety hazard
• Will have a devastating effect on the local community

Read more about the issues or add your voice to our campaign
Excavating shingle from Dungeness would damage this internationally important and environmentally diverse habitat for generations to come. Whether you love Dungeness as a resident or a visitor, you will see this breathtakingly wild stretch of coast change beyond recognition when the lorries, dump trucks and diggers roll in – and the proposed flood defenses will not deliver high-value and reliable flood protection to residents in return.
There are other options.

Please help us!

If you love Dungeness as much as we do then please add your voice to our campaign. Together we will get residents the flood protection they need without devastating the 'ness."

Full details at http://www.lovedungeness.org/

No New Nuclear Plant for Dungeness

The Government has announced the eight sites where it build the next generation of nuclear power stations - but the site at Dungeness is not one of them.
According the Government press release :"Government has found that Dungeness in Kent is not suitable for deployment by 2025, due to concerns over the impact of a potential station on important habitat sites".

The Government also chose today to announce that it will not be proceeding to the Severn Barrage because of the costs http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn10_107/pn10_107.aspx