The Harbour Board has been trying for 20 years or more to provide showers for the crews of visiting yachts. That’s not a luxury: it’s no more than what a basic campsite would provide. Visitors to continental ports are always glad of the facilities proudly provided by the local town; and showers onshore help keep the harbour water clean. But in Salcombe there have always been objections of one kind or another and, even though the yacht club allows visitors to use their showers, it doesn’t at the weekends. So when the Harbour Board decided to experiment with a portable shower unit, temporarily installed on a couple of Whitestrand car parking places for July and August this year, it looked as if progress was at last being made. However, it was not to be: the Town Council objected so strongly that the plan had to be shelved. The Board will now include a different proposal in its 5-year plan when it goes out for consultation.
Better news is that the harbour will not now be scheduled as a marine conservation zone (MCZ) under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. MCZs were designed to protect the sea along the coast, for instance, to create the no-fish zones which can be essential to conserve fish stocks. But the Environment Agency (EA) thought they might extend the MCZs into a number of south coast estuaries. The harbour is (a very rare) marine Site of Scientific Importance, a nature reserve and in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The level of regulation is, therefore, high and we saw no advantage in yet another layer of control. In the event, the EA agreed. Phew.
But perhaps the best news of all is that the harbour will once again have a Blue Flag flying on South Sands beach. As regular readers will know, this has been a bit of a struggle but the decisive element was the Catchment Sensitive Farming Initiative and the local farmer’s work to keep cattle effluent out of the little stream which runs down to the beach. It is unusual to have such wonderful beaches within a harbour so it is quite right that we should be careful to safeguard their cleanliness and be able to advertise their water quality. A Blue Flag does that – and is a fitting welcome to the harbour.
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