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This is the first published Electronic Newspaper for 
Shoreham-by-Sea and District, West Sussex, England

Local News

Please send any news items to:
Andy Horton  Glaucus@hotmail.com

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Wildlife Reports 

6 March 2000
On an overcast day, thousands of Black-headed Gulls, many more than usual, congregated on the River Adur at high tide, with more in the fields and flying over Shoreham Town Centre. A few Chaffinches, no longer common, showed a preference for a Pussy Willow Tree near the Waterworks Road. I disturbed a Pheasant on the flood plain fields grazed by a flock of sheep. 

4 March 2000
The garden ponds in Shoreham, complete with frog spawn froze over during the night. 

1 March 2000
A couple of Moorhens scrambled about in the muddy field underneath the Adur Flyover and a Heron patrolled along the drainage streams on the edge of the nearby grazed fields, looking for frogs.

The official footpath (right of way) from the Street (top end) to the Waterworks Road and then connecting up to the cycle path appears to be obstructed on the western side of the Steyning road - it is certainly very muddy. 

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Adur Quality of Life meeting  at the Civic Centre on 8 March 2000.

Not quite as interesting as the previous meeting. 

The term for increasing the density of homes in urban areas is called "Town Cramming". There are national rules and local rules for the amount of green space accompanying each large home building plot e.g. on the vacant land near Southlands Hospital.

The Housing Allocation for Adur has been revised and the new figures will not be known until about June 2000. 

Strategic Gaps and Public Rights of Way

There were two maps on display, one showing the plan for the Golf Course on the marshy land adjacent to Shoreham Airport, and the other one showing Public Rights of Way in Adur.

Contact:  Natalie Brahma-Pearl at Housing & Environment, Adur District Council first (Tel: 01273 263347).

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Countryside and Rights of Way Bill.

Press Notice 151:
3 March 2000

Greater access and wildlife protection - we're on our way, says Meacher.

The Government's commitment to open up the countryside and protect wildlife
took a major step forward today, with the publication of the Countryside and
Rights of Way Bill.

Michael Meacher said:

"This is a historic Bill. For the first time in 50 years a huge increase will be created in access to the open countryside. It is matched by the most radical improvement to rights of ways for many years. This builds on our recent proposals for two new national parks in the South Downs and New Forest as well as consultation on extending greater protection and better management to common land which is currently unregistered."

With greater access there will be greater responsibilities. Only if people abide by sensible restrictions will they be able to benefit from the new right. The existing network of wardens will be strengthened to help promote responsible access. The Government's access proposals will not threaten landowners' and managers' livelihoods. The Bill will also bring in important new protection for wildlife.

On public access the Bill will:
 

• create a new right of public access to some four million acres of mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common land, about one ninth of the land area of the country, much of which will be opened up to the public for the first time;
• include safeguards so that landowners and occupiers can continue to use land to its best advantage and wildlife can be protected; and
• allow landowners to dedicate land voluntarily for public access, giving access to areas not covered by the Bill, such as woodland and riverside.


On rights of way the Bill will:
 

• modernise the rights of way laws ­ the needs of landowners and users have changed over the years;
• require local authorities to draw up plans to improve their rights of way networks;
• redesignate over 4,000 miles of rights of way as a new category of public highway for all traffic, except motorised vehicles, giving more certainty to horse riders, walkers, cyclists and drivers of horse-drawn carriages; and
• contain new measures to get obstructions removed from rights of way.


On wildlife the Bill will:
 

• give greater protection to Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) -conservation agencies will have the power to prevent damaging activities;
• include tougher action against wildlife crime (in line with recommendations made by the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW)) by creating a new offence of reckless disturbance; giving increased powers to the police and wildlife inspectors; increasing fines to up to £5,000 and introducing prison sentences of up to six months for virtually all wildlife offences.


Mr Meacher also announced that further measures will be proposed as
Government amendments to the Bill to:
 

• encourage the completion of the historic record of rights of way on local authorities' definitive maps within 25 years, on the basis that that will provide sufficient time for the necessary research to be completed;
• provide powers to divert rights of way to protect SSSIs; and
• give local authorities the power to make temporary diversions of rights of way, in exceptional circumstances, such as plant disease.


Access

The Countryside and Rights of Way Bill will fulfil the Government's manifesto commitment to give people greater freedom to explore open countryside.

The Bill will introduce a new right of public access to mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common land. The right will not be unrestricted. It will be limited in scope to avoid activities which cause harm or damage, provide for closures of access land and other restrictions to to take account of the needs of conservation, land management, defence and national security, and safety. It will include an order-making power to allow for the possibility of extending the right of access to coastal land. There will also be a power for landowners voluntarily to dedicate their land for access in perpetuity.

A statement of the Government's access proposals was published in March 1999, entitled Access to the Countryside in England & Wales: The Government's Framework for Action. The framework was developed in the light of responses to the public consultation paper, Access to the Open Countryside in England & Wales, published in February 1998, and the results of a study of the economic, environmental and social benefits and costs of different approaches for improving access to open countryside.

Rights of way

The Bill will also introduce improvements to the legislation governing the rights of way system. It will include measures for the strategic planning of rights of way networks, to improve the administration and management of rights of way, and to promote increased access for disabled people and for a new category of right of way for all traffic except motor vehicles to replace the current category of Roads Used as Public Paths.

There will be environmental safeguards including powers to regulate traffic for conservation purposes, and to make diversion orders so as to prevent damage to sites of special scientific interest. This will enable There will also be provisions for landowners to apply to the local authority for an order to divert or extinguish a right of way.

In addition, there will also be measures to assist crime prevention in specified circumstances and to deal with obstructions to rights of way. The Bill also clarifies extends the offence of driving a motor vehicles on a footpath or bridleway so that it applies to vehicles such as trail bikes which may not be covered at present.

Sites of Special Scientific Interest

The Bill will introduce improved protection and management of SSSIs. It will include new and enhanced powers for the conservation agencies: power to refuse consent for damaging activities; introduction of management notices to combat neglect: additional powers to enter land; and more flexible powers to purchase land compulsorily. This is balanced by a more structured approach to management advice and new appeal procedures.

It also proposes increased penalties for deliberate damage to SSSIs of up to £20,000 in the magistrate's court and unlimited fines in the crown court; a new court power to order restoration of the damaged special interest, where this is practicable; and a new general offence to apply to third party damage.

Public bodies will be under a statutory duty to further the conservation and enhancement of SSSIs, both in carrying out their operations and exercising 
their decision-making functions.

SSSIs are nationally important sites for wildlife and geology.

Wildlife

The Bill will bring up-to-date and strengthen the species enforcement provisions of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Its measures will include:
 

• introducing the option of custodial sentences for wildlife offences;
• providing Police officers and DETR Wildlife Inspectors with powers to require tissue samples to be taken from wildlife species for DNA analysis.


The Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime's recommendations for
changes to strengthen wildlife law enforcement were published for
consultation in March 1997. Ministers announced their support for the
majority of the recommendations in July (PN 286) and October (PN 395) 1997,
and these are now being taken forward in the Bill.

Copies of the Bill and the accompanying Explanatory Notes are on sale from
The Stationery Office on 0870 6005522 or can be found on the Internet at:
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/pabills.htm.

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199900/cmbills/078/2000078.htm

at least 34 pages (Tip: use the DETR file names when saving). 

Press enquiries 020 7944 3041
Out of hours: 020 7944 5925 or 5945
Public Enquiries Unit 020 7944 3333
E-mail: press@detr.gov.uk
Web site http://www.detr.gov.uk/

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Published 3 March 2000

Best Guide at:
http://www.wildlife-countryside.detr.gov.uk/cl/bill/factsheet/Index.htm#1

Friends of the Earth Report
http://www.foe.co.uk/wildplaces/whats_in_whats_not.html

(the FOE sites are not very helpful or interesting at present, but they are expected to be so in the future)

Find the Sites of Special Scientific Interest using this link:
Friends of the Earth SSSI Navigator


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Poetry Extract:

Beach is calm, pebbles still,
Along comes the tide ready to kill.
Rumble, tumble clash together,
Now the stones have gone forever.
The stones have now turned into sand,
And are now back on the land.
 Emma Fletcher 

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Words of the Week

eustasy  | justsi |  n. M20. [Back-form. f. next, after mod.L -stasis corresp. to -static: see -Y3.] Geogr. A uniform worldwide change of sea level.

eustatic  | justatk |  a. E20. [f. as EU- + STATIC.] Geogr. Accompanying or forming part of a worldwide change of sea level.eustatically adv. M20.

---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia
Developed by The Learning Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1997 TLC Properties Inc. (Currently available on the April 2000 issue of one of the computer magazines.)


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Computer Tips

Photoshop:   It is worth learning how to use the Rubber Stamp Tool. 

The Rubber Stamp Tool lets you paint a part from an image into the same image or into another image. 

To use the Rubber Stamp Tool in its simplest use:

Click on the Rubber Stamp Icon and move it on to the part of the image you want to copy the colour from. Then press the Alt. key and right click the mouse or trackball. The cursor will still be the Rubber Stamp Icon which will paint the part you have selected.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The pink background bits of the Mallow have been added using the Rubber Stamp Tool.

If you want to copy a colour use the Eyedropper with the Eraser &/or Paint Bucket  tools (see the image on the right).

The tool also does more than this, but that's for the expert photo-manipulators. 
 

• Star:  Latest Virus Information

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Sussex Books

Boxgrove
A Middle Pleistocene hominid site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex
by M B Roberts & S A Parfitt
English Heritage 1999  Archaeological Report 17
ISBN  1 85074 670 2

It is recommended to have a look at:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/boxgrove/home.htm

first.

The hominid species is Homo heidelbergensis (nearest they can get from a bit of a leg). 

It is surmised (inferred butchery process) that (s)he ate Rhinoceros, Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis, which was roaming around a European peninsula, which was later called Britain with wild horses, giant deer, bears etc. Boxgrove man cut the rhino up with flint tools.

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Historical Snippets

1937  700 acres of downland (Mill Hill) donated to Shoreham by the Bridger family.
Shoreham won the National Rowing Trophy.

Brief History of Shoreham-by-Sea

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Events

• Adur World Oceans Day  3 June 2000
• Please send in any details of local events.

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Web Sites

 
WORLDWIDE:  RECOMMENDED SITES: 1 TO 5 STARS

Games & Leisure

Please send in any details of recommended games and web sites.

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Free Advertisements

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY

For any company or organisation wanting nationwide green publicity, there is an opportunity to sponsor the journal "Glaucus" of the British Marine Life Study Society.

There remains sponsorship opportunities on the BMLSS (England) web site and other publications, including Torpedo.

Sponsorship is also available for the Adur Torpedo Electronic News Bulletin and the Shoreham-by-Sea web pages (which preceded the Adur Resource Centre web site), which would be more suitable for a local firm(s).

Web Site Design Services are available from Hulkesmouth Publishing

Normal advertisement rules apply.
Submissions accepted by EMail only.



EMail: Glaucus@hotmail.com

Adur Torpedo was written, designed and distributed by Andy Horton.

Links to earlier issues (for subscribers who have downloaded the Bulletins only, and web site visitors).
 
 

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