‘What a shambles’

I am over visiting my sister from New Zealand. I was born in the Sid Valley and I am shocked to see the awful mess that the seafront has become. It used to be the jewel in your crown. You call it a lovely Regency town, but those awful dirty rock groynes, the mined pebbles, the dirty pond surrounded by weeds opposite the Bedford car park, the walkway with those horrid signs and grass and the rusty and unkempt Alma Bridge - what a shambles.

I can remember a beautiful beach with the beautiful wooden groynes, the sparking sea stretching from east to west, the lovely little beaches and the rock pools near Jacob’s Ladder. The one thing I really miss is the sound that the old pebbles made when moving with the tide - a lovely tinkling sound. The old wooden groynes should have been replaced one at a time and not all removed at once, leaving the sea to take the beach.

I visited Exmouth and the groynes there were lovely - really stunning as it should be in a Regency setting.

This would never been allowed to happen in my adopted country. It is such a shame, as the Sid Valley is wonderful, except for the ugly wart that’s the beach and the buildings that are creeping further up the surrounding hills.

Annabel Hutchinson

Via email

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