Over 60 people turned out in protest of the ongoing situation at Harbour Farm in Bembridge on Sunday, standing together in solidarity in front of the locked gates of the Environment Agency’s land off Embankment Road. The protesters all held daffodils as a reminder of what they were missing in the locked gardens behind them. They included bird watchers, naturalists, ecologists, local politicians and educationalists including former MP Andrew Turner, Sir Paul Kenny (ex-General secretary of the GMB union), Vix Lowthion (Green Party Education spokesperson) and Chani Courtney, representing Surfers Against Sewage on the Isle of Wight. The farm was bought by the Environment Agency some 10 years ago and since then the once beautiful gardens, rare apple orchards, houses, stables and barns have been left to go to wrack and ruin, says a local action group. The group believes this to be an ideal educational, leisure and tourist site to enable the public to connect with nature. Indeed, this was a suggestion made by the Agency’s own consultants in a 2023 report on the Embankment area – one they seem to have forgotten about. Plans are being developed by the protestors for a nature walk, bird hides and an accessible, wildlife education centre featuring all the incredible wildlife organisations, conservation work, green activities and protected life in the area. Andrew Holman, chair of the action group, spoke at the end of the protest with a summary of actions to date and plans for the future. He said that the action group wants clarification about what’s happened and what is planned for the site, and a commitment from the Environment Agency to a proper consultation, not just a public meeting that can be forgotten about. Mr Holman has said:
“Such a turnout shows just how much this proposal has such huge and universal appeal across the whole local population. “It would be much easier [for the Environment Agency] to believe the other experts we’ve consulted, saying this is the way forward for this land and to start listening to what everyone else in the area is saying they want from their land”.
At last a protest that if successful can show what the island is all about nature must be preserved at all costs if nature is lost we are all lost
May all your troubles be little ones …
Protests are anti social! Arrest them all!
Ferry must have been busy with all the DFL’S
Well said, and the amount of people who back you is far far more, lots of us couldn’t get there for various reason, but the padlocks need to be off.
Looks like an ideal spot for a new IOW Fuels depot?
Very encouraging.Good move folks.
And there you have it, the second home fraternity out in force. Not one permanent Island resident amongst them I bet
Er, Mr A Turner…..a well known island resident. Do read the piece before commenting.
Wrong! Everyone there was a Bembridge or St Helens resident, get your facts straight before commenting perhaps!
The photograph shows ALL Bembridge full time residents. Both ladies have lived in the village for years. (Go Windmill WI Girls!) Try to get your facts right next time Mark.
A lie is defined as saying something that is untrue when you know it is not, or saying something that you have no way of knowing is true. In this Trump MAGA world, idiots like you have discovered keep telling these lies and you’ll win. Well done, you have join the leagues of the right-wing anti democracy gang. Next you’ll be saying Russia is good.
The EA will probably claim they are ‘rewilding’ the area.
Re wilding in it’s purest form
The Environment Agency should be closed down. It has never been fit for purpose.
It’ll be sold off for housing and rightly so. About time Bembridge pulled their weight. We need to stop housing being built in the main towns all the time and start using these areas.
Another “expert”. Harbour Farm is below sea level and no developer with anything between their ears would touch it. My understanding is that the RSPB and EA want it to go back to nature. I would love Bembridge to “pull its weight” if only it had the infrastructure to cope. Schools, transport, parking, health facilities are all a problem. No wonder the residents – not second homers, are up in arms about the ludicrous decision to give permission for 56 homes on a site that floods.
We need to stop house building period.
TW@
Its ‘rack’ and ruin.
“Wrack and ruin” is actually correct (wrack = destroy) but “rack and ruin” has become common usage due to ignorance.
I wonder how many demonstrators are true Bembridge people or are they middle class retirees from the mainland? Just nimbies if you ask me speaking as a person born and bred in the village whose family goes back for several generations.
Why should be more interested in your non-opinion just because you an inbred islander? In fact, it is common knowledge that “true islanders” have no useful opinions on anything because their addled brains are not capable of processing complex information.
EA only interested in themselves