Firstly – a big ‘Thank You’ to all who made last Saturday’s exhibition a roaring success. We will have a full report shortly in the next mailshot, and here on the website. Meanwhile, see the press release below for a summary; Secondly, as a result of much information gathered at the exhibition, we will be busy finalising our strategy for the letter writing campaign that will be triggered by any planning application – further details will be in the next mailshot…

Stop The Marina! Press Release 9 Monday 12^th November 2007

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO STOP THEM! was the theme of a public exhibition hosted by Stop The Marina! and Friends of The Bay last Saturday. Both groups have been actively campaigning against the proposed marina development at Penlee Quarry for well over two years. Almost two hundred people including, MP Andrew George and local councillors, were in attendance.

Much anxiety was expressed by those attending about the implications of the development, including increased traffic through Newlyn, Mousehole being 'cut off' by the proposed lifting bridge, and access for emergency services. There was also growing concern about rumours of proposals to build a new road to service the quarry around the back of Tredavoe; and also fears that the water in the quarry 'lake', which would need to be drained before the development takes place, is highly toxic, a view which was put forward by local senior mining geologist Dr. Terry Cotton, who also attended the exhibition. According to Dr Cotton -  ‘the water, which is likely to be highly acidic, could do untold damage to marine life in Mount's Bay’.

Additional material was provided by town councillor and keen local diver Heidi Worth representing the Silver Dolphin Diving Centre, who brought some fascinating photos of marine life taken off Roskilly beach and was in constant conversation with members of the public throughout the day.  If the development goes ahead, the creation of a channel for the marina would effectively destroy Roskilly as a diving area and would probably mean the end of the eelgrass beds, a vital marine habitat protected by the Berne Convention.  The beach was voted Britain's top dive site by national magazine Sports Diver in August this year.

There was also an exhibition by Penzance Harbour Users of their alternative proposal for a Penzance marina, incorporating many exciting ideas for the regeneration of the harbour area.

"The message we are trying to get across to the public is that there is still time to stop this development," said organiser Adam Whaley. "People seem to have become very confused ever since Marina Developments Limited gained permission to resume quarrying in December last year. They can see the site being landscaped, and as a result they think the development is going ahead, but, as yet, there have been no planning applications either for housing or a marina. We are ready for the next stage of the campaign, which is to get in as many objections to the planning as possible once it is submitted, and we are trying to raise public awareness to that end."

Further information on the campaign can be found on Stop The Marina!’s website: www.stopthemarina.co.uk

We are gratified that The Cornishman has printed an article based on our press release above. However, note the adjustment - 'nearly two hundred' has become 'about a hundred' - why this has been changed we can only guess?

We also note with interest that MDL now state that the planning application that, we understood was due in early November, will now 'be lodged in the Spring'. If this is true it will allow us a little more time to refine our tactics and gather more information to back up our case.