Pagham to East Head Coastal Defence Strategy -

"The Chichester Harbour Conservancy has not yet had the opportunity to review the Pagham to East Head Coastal Defence Strategy Consultation Document in any detail.

It is a clear and fundamental Government requirement that Coastal Defence Strategies assess what impact a preferred option will have on adjacent coastlines.

This work has simply not been done in the case of the Pagham to East Head Strategy and Chichester Harbour. In short, the Environment Agency and Chichester District Council, whose Strategy this is, do not know what the preferred option means for the harbour community and the largest leisure harbour in the country.

Specifically, the Strategy is flawed in the following respects:

•It has failed to assess what impact widening the harbour entrance, by Managed Realignment, will have on the hydrodynamics of the harbour and consequent sedimentation in the navigable channels.

• It has failed to identify and quantify what impact that sedimentation will have on the range of vessels using the harbour.

MORE OVER

• It has failed to establish the social, economic and amenity value of the harbour, how that might be affected by the loss of navigability, and whether there is an overriding public interest in preserving that value. The Conservancy believe there is an overriding public interest because it is a nationally important asset.

• It has failed to consider properly how, within the Managed Realignment and other options, the socio-economic value of the harbour can be maintained for as long as possible in an environmentally and economically sustainable way.

The Chichester Harbour Conservancy may be obliged object to the proposals for East Head in the Consultation Document but will look forward to working with the Environment Agency, Chichester District Council and the owners of East Head, The National Trust, to overcome any shortcomings and to ensure that a balanced and sustainable solution for the management of East Head emerges."

Chichester Harbour Conservancy Press Release , 24 November 2006

Please click here to download a copy of the Coastal Defence Strategy is available at

http://www.conservancy.co.uk/environment/east_head.asp

ISAF VOTE ON ONE CLASS LESS IN OLYMPICS
This week has seen a huge decision concerning Olympic sailing come out of the ISAF annual conference. Following the decision last year to include medal races in the Olympic format, this year we see a decision to go from 11 sailing medals to ten for the Olympic Games in 2012.

The fact that ISAF are reviewing not just the classes but also the events in which competitors will be competing could be very telling, clearly we could well be facing a rather major shuffle of the Olympic system. We know ISAF are keen to have a serious go at updating the look of the sport on the Olympic stage and this could well lead them to be very radical with which ‘events’ they choose. ISAF President, Goran Petersson, believes we have to change in a significant way. “The image gap between where we are and where we want to be is significant,” he said during the announcement. However, we also know that ISAF is the very essence of politics and compromise so it seems hard to imagine a hugely radical solution.

The most conservative guesses currently are the introduction of a women’s skiff class, similar to the 49er (the 29erXX is taking part in an ‘Olympic Observation Trial early next year) or the introduction of a compulsory mixed class (potentially the 470.) The slightly more radical guesses all seem to involve scrapping the current classes altogether and starting from fresh. There really is no way of knowing which of these theories (if any) will be most correct, we will have to wait at least a year to find out.