Ours was the marsh country

"Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things, seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such time I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard and the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond was the river and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing was the sea."

From 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens. Excerpt on display in St James' Church, Cooling on the Hoo Peninsula.

It's been a strange day here. Like everyone else, I woke up to news that the government will hold a formal consultation for the proposed Thames Estuary airport. It wasn't a bombshell, I think we all expected it. They pretty much said as much last year. So I was ready, I couldn't wait for people to come in and start talking about it! I was encouraged by what I heard. There were no answers, other than to the question - will we fight? YES. It was enough to feel the passion crackling around the room. To know that wheels are turning. I love this area with every ounce of my being and so do lots of other people. Some of them live down the road, some of them live miles away. People that might never have been here still understand what is at stake. It's a story that's happening everywhere. But conservation has no borders and small flowers can still crack concrete.

This room is filled with books and files. They contain data relating to bird numbers in this area going back decades. I bet if I looked carefully enough I'd find a pattern emerging. In the majority of cases I think we'd find that fewer numbers of fewer species are recorded each year. So that suggests we have a problem, a complex one at that. I believe we have a moral imperative to arrest this or to do our damnedest trying. In no way will building an airport on the Hoo Peninsula have a positive impact on this.

I guess in the grand scheme of things though, it's not really about birds. They are of course hugely important, along with all the other wonderful wildlife here, but like that Dicken's quote - it's just as much about the wider area, that "dark flat wilderness". Generally I think people live here for a reason - it's a way of life that they have chosen. Rural areas are still very much defined by communities, we lose them and we lose our rural identity. If that goes then so does our connection to vast swathes of the natural world. With each passing generation it becomes harder to remember. The baseline changes and we begin to expect less and less. To my eyes, an area like Grain (and Hoo and the Medway and Essex etc) has been founded on community ideals. It might not be perfect and I'm sure some people would welcome investment/jobs in these areas but a "global airport hub" is not the answer.

This has been rumbling on for a long time, at least this news is some news. So what is this consultation? Officially, at least, it means no decision has been made yet regarding the airport. We know Heathrow has been dismissed but we'll have to wait a while longer, until Spring at least, to see what exactly the government means by its "sustainable framework for UK aviation". I'm guessing that'll be a very loose translation of 'sustainable' but we'll see. In the meantime I guess we keep on doing what we do and step up for nature.

Grain Marsh, 27/12/11

#noestuaryairport