February 20 2014.



Jim Skinner reports:

Friends of Tide Mills completed its February meeting on Sunday. In brilliant wall to wall sunshine 23 of us, (including several very welcome new members), managed a mammoth 30 bags of rubbish and any amount of heavier, bulkier items- a fantastic effort by anybody's reckoning.

We again left Tide Mills in very good heart and hopefully all visitors will agree, and despite this atrocious and un-precedented weather of late, it looks fantastic and just waiting for the first true signs of Spring.

Readers will want to be aware that some lumps of palm oil, (pictured here), has been found on the beach, and this has been reported to the EA. This is a particularly nasty substance which is known to be poisonous to dogs. Unfortunately several dead sea birds were also found.

Visitors will also be concerned about the EA lorries and diggers removing shingle from the Tide Mills beach front as emergency shoring up work for Seaford beach, which is now effectively destroyed. The EA has assured us that both the vegetated shingle habitat and land behind will not be compromised, but of course this ongoing situation needs to be monitored.

Newhaven Port Properties has very kindly donated more litter sacks and some super duper new litter grabbers, so we have plenty to spare for everybody. We much appreciate NPP's ongoing support for our merry little, but steadily growing band.

Our next meeting is Sunday the 16th March, (always the third Sunday of each month), meeting at 10am at the waymarker adjacent to the beach at the road leading from the level crossing. Our meetings last nominally for two hours, but all are welcome no matter how much time can be spared.

More information from me at brian.skinner2@btinternet.com or our website at www.tidemills.webs.com/


Jim Skinner