RSPB swoops on Bathside

An application to build another new port at Bathside Bay, near Harwich, is still being considered but if London Gateway is finally given the green light, the UK will not need a port at Bathside, the RSPB believes. Bathside Bay is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Protection Area (SPA) under EU law because of its importance to wild birds.

Andrew Dodd, the RSPB’s head of Site Conservation Policy said: “If the London Gateway proposal goes ahead, ministers should turn the Bathside Bay plan down. The sacrifice of so much of the wildlife for which the UK has an international responsibility, to make way for any more new ports, is totally unnecessary.”

The London Gateway scheme is likely to damage part of Mucking Flats, an important area of mudflat for wintering waders and wildfowl in the Thames Estuary and Marshes SPA. The RSPB objected to the London Gateway proposal because of the potential damage to the SPA.

The RSPB, and the Portswatch alliance, has long campaigned for a national ports’ strategy, which would assess the need for new container port capacity and development proposals together, rather than case-bycase. Last year, the government announced it would do just that, but not until this autumn when decisions on Bathside Bay and Felixstowe South will already have been made.