Last month we asked the prospective MPs for Dover & Deal for their views on the adequacy of the process that led to Dover Harbour Board being granted their dredging licence.

We highlighted our main concerns which include the Marine Management Organisation making their decision to grant the licence before either the Environmental Management Plan or the Archaeological Management Plan were agreed.

Published below are the responses we have received from Charlotte Cornell and Natalie Elphicke. Simon Dodd, Beccy Sawbridge and Nathan Sutton have also sent messages of support.

Main image: “The British Parliament and Big Ben” (CC BY 2.0) by ** Maurice **

The Honourable Sir Duncan Ouseley has dismissed Goodwin Sands SOS claim for the marine aggregate dredging licence granted to Dover Harbour Board for the Goodwin Sands to be quashed.  SOS’s legal advisors have advised against appealing the decision. 

Spokesman for the SOS group Joanna Thomson said “we are naturally very disappointed at this decision.  It was a tough legal challenge but we had to pursue every avenue to save this precious and unique environment.  However, the campaign is far from over. This Judicial Review related only to a specific environmental matter. The dredging’s impact upon war graves and the internationally important underwater cultural heritage (UCH) remains to be resolved by the MMO and Historic England“.  

Mrs Thomson continued “the Archaeological Written Scheme of Investigation (AWSI), yet to be formulated, should provide protection for our heritage and we shall fight to ensure that it does, if necessary by further legal action.  Furthermore, the issue of allowing dredging of a protected habitat in a Marine Conservation Zone also needs addressing at the highest level without delay, as it makes a complete mockery of the whole MCZ programme. Protection must mean protection”.

Despite losing this round of the Judicial Review, the community group can be proud of its many achievements:

• it has prevented the destruction by dredging of at least two military aircraft crash sites and two potentially valuable shipwrecks.  These lie in the original dredge zone and had not been detected by Dover Harbour Board’s consultants.  Damaging military aircraft crash sites is unlawful under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
• it has forced the Marine Management Organisation to allow the public to comment on the revised draft AWSI before the pre-dredge surveys can start.
• it has highlighted the considerable failings in the marine licensing process which must be addressed.
• it has created the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust which will educate the public and raise awareness of the cultural, environmental and historical significance of the Sands.  The Trust’s main goal is to inscribe the Goodwins as the first UNESCO marine cultural World Heritage Site.

Dredging the Goodwins will have three important impacts:

• it completely undermines the protection supposedly provided by Marine Conservation Zones.  The subtidal sand targeted for extraction was designated a Protected Habitat on 31^stMay 2019.   The Marine Management Organisation concluded that removing 3 million tonnes of this sand would not hinder the conservation objectives as Natural England had advised them the habitat would recover in 5 years.
• it poses a serious risk to our underwater cultural heritage.  Dover Harbour Board’s contractors have not positively identified any of the targets lying in the dredge zone and have dismissed all of them as being of no human interest ie part of a shipwreck or aircraft crash site.  DHB has no idea what they are because they will not ground truth these targets by diver and / or ROV inspection.
• it jeopardises the inscription of a potential World Heritage Site

Dover Harbour Board’s marine licence allows them to dredge up to 3 million tonnes of dry aggregate until 31^stDecember 2022.  It will be used as landfill for their Dover Western Docks Revival project.  No official use of the reclaimed land has been given but many consider it will be used as a lorry park.

The SOS group would like to thank all the many advisors who have so willingly and generously given their professional advice over the past three years.  In particular, Paul Taylor and Richard Buxton of Richard Buxton solicitors and Marie Demetriou QC and Daniel Piccinin of Brick Court Chambers, who submitted a compelling legal argument on what was essentially a very narrow point. 

They would also like to thank the fantastic supporters who so far have raised almost £50K for the legal fees and whose words of encouragement have helped to keep them persevering for the duration of this lengthy and challenging campaign.. 

Your continued support is vital to our eventual success. 

You can read a copy of the official judgement here: https://goodwinsandssos.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Thomson-v-MMO-Approved-Judgement.pdf

These remains of what appears to be a WWII bomber were discovered on the Goodwin Sands at the end of August 2018. A radial engine lies close by. Despite being surveyed twice by Dover Harbour Board’s archaeological contractor, this site was not identified as an aircraft crash site but as a ‘seafloor disturbance’.

The area of the seabed where this aircraft lies is about to be dredged to use as landfill for Dover’s new dock development. Goodwin Sands SOS is very concerned that other aircraft crash sites lying undetected in the dredge and buffer zones will be affected by the dredging. Military aircraft crash sites are protected under law and should not be disturbed in any way.

If you share our concerns about these sensitive sites, please email the Secretary of State for Defence, at gavin@gavinwilliamson.org or contact the Prime Minister via https://email.number10.gov.uk

Please visit https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/goodwin-sands-sos-stop-the-dredge to sign our petition against the plans to dredge the Goodwin Sands.

Thank you! The Goodwin Sands SOS team.

Crew members of a ship which sank off the Kent coast more than 275 years ago have been identified.

Researchers used archive documents to name 19 of the 237 shipmen who were on board the Dutch ship the Rooswijk.

Among them were a senior surgeon, a 19-year-old on his first voyage and a sailor who had previously survived a shipwreck.

The vessel, which was carrying coins and silver ingots, sank on Goodwin Sandsin January 1740.

More than a thousand vessels are known to have been wrecked on the notorious sandbanks, dubbed “the great ship swallower”.

Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-44925445

Sands of Time

Regarded with awe, apprehension and yet reverence by seafarers over centuries, the Goodwin Sands constitute a rich mixture of maritime history, natural science and marine ecology as well as being a graveyard for so many brave, and for the most part, unsuspecting seafarers. Thousands of merchant and naval sailors of differing nationalities are buried there along with the remains of the wooden, iron and steel ships which remaining undisturbed, mark their graves.

Today the Goodwin Sands are a breeding and feeding ground for so many species of fish, crustaceans and seals to the extent that – if ever there was one – this is surely the definition of a Marine Conservation Zone. Put another way, it would be sacrilege if the Goodwin Sands were to slip the MCZ net.

The Goodwin Sands SOS team have done an excellent job in highlighting the need for conservation of an area of the English Channel that has remained untouched for centuries. There can be no commercial justification in seeing this area desecrated. At high water the Goodwin Sands disappear from view but we must not allow our maritime history and ecological future to disappear from our consciousness in a similar way!

Dr Bill Moses, MBE, MA – July 2018

Biography of Dr Bill Moses, MBE, MA – July 2018
Heralded as a guru of the shipping industry, Dr Bill Moses has considerable experience running successful and high-profile passenger and freight shipping businesses at local, regional and international level. With a career spanning over 40 years Bill has operated a wide variety of conventional freight and passenger ships as well as fast ferries. He now offers personal and expert advice to the wider maritime industry.

In 2008, Bill was awarded with a Member of the British Empire medal (MBE) by Her Majesty the Queen, for Services to the Shipping Industry and Charitable work.

Bill has a Master of Arts degree in International Maritime Policy and graduated in 2011 as a Doctor of Philosophy based on his extensive research entitled The Commercial and Technical Evolution of the Ferry Industry 1948-1987.

You only have one more week in which to lodge your objection(s) to the MMO about the proposed dredging of the Goodwin Sands!

This week is all about remembering those who died in conflict and our campaign is trying to ensure that the resting places of those who perished in and around the Goodwin Sands are left alone.  Forever.

Statue of a seated pilot at the Battle of Britain Memorial

As Dover Harbour Board hold and attend Remembrance Services in and around Dover, we are all well aware that they are planning an activity which will disturb the marine graves of the very same drowned mariners and brave RAF pilots.

Even if you don’t attend a Remembrance Service yourself, or observe a two minute silence on Friday 11th, please do spare ten minutes of your busy life to join us in protecting the graves of those who gave their lives for us.

Please email: marine.consents@marinemanagement.org.uk quoting reference MLA/2016/00227 before November 16th 2016.

There are plenty of other reasons for objecting which can be found listed on this website under the ‘Objections‘ tab.  There is also a link from there to send in your response.   Don’t forget to quote the reference number!

The 2nd Public Consultation Period ends on Nov 16th. We have one last chance to make Dover Harbour Board take notice of the enormous public objection to their greedy dredging plans!

We need as many people as possible to join us for an hour on Friday morning this week (11th November) from 10:30 to 11:30.

Please email us on goodwinsandssos@gmail.com if you are able to join us for this crucial event. Please share this event and invite your friends too! THE GOODWIN SANDS NEEDS YOU NOW!

This video has been sent to us by Tom Carney who lives in Deal.  He has used elements of Deal beach in the film and his intention was to capture the mystery of the war grave at sea.