mud, glorious mud slinging

There is a lot of good work gone into the objections raised by Rescue the Cuckmere Valley and their patron Nigel Newton, and they highlight some important and valid points. But how you present your argument is every bit as important as the argument itself.

Members of the Cuckmere Estuary Partnership, whose professional status and government affiliation demand a certain decorum, are expected to be modest in their comments and press releases. News agencies would have a field day with public objection should they behave otherwise. Accordingly, any attempt to slur the name or good standing of those opposing managed realignment would be seen as unfair, an abuse of power, bullying even ... and rightly so. They have to remain professional – and they do a very good job of it.

Strangely this shoe doesn’t seem to fit on the other foot!! Enter Alan J Edgar BA FRTPI MBII.

Mr Edgar was hired by Nigel Newton to act on behalf of Rescue the Cuckmere Valley back in 2003 [date requires confirmation]. As a professional Town Planner, and principal of Plan Sussex, one might reasonably expect Mr Edgar to behave with the same civility as members of the Cuckmere Estuary Partnership ... might one not?

Looking at the Plan Sussex website it’s somewhat curious to discover that Mr Edgar spends a lot of his time helping proposals gain approval in areas where most people might reasonably object to them: houses in AONB designated areas, a Green Belt fringe application for 2 large houses, an Orange network pole in an ANOB [sic] and near a SSSI/Nature Reserve, etc, etc. It seems logical, however, that his expertise in overcoming such obstacles to development gives him enormous experience in how to defend against them.

But many of the comments he makes are nothing more than insults and provocative exaggerations and we should be cautious how much credence we give them. Sadly, as history frequently demonstrates, misleading an impassioned public can lead to catastrophe. We must hope that nobody really believes the members of the Cuckmere Estuary Partnership to be capable of some of the heinous crimes Mr Edgar accuses them of.

The following comments are taken from articles that Rescue the Cuckmere Valley link to though their own website and display, we are to assume, with pride. They have all been made by Alan J Edgar BA FRTPI MBII:

“The Environment Agency is using bureaucratic terrorism to scare us ...” [Article]

Hmm – not sure what ‘bureaucratic terrorism’ is, but this is how the OED defines terrorism:

A system of terror.

1. Government by intimidation as directed and carried out by the party in power in France during the Revolution of 1789-94; the system of the ‘Terror’ (1793-4):

2. gen. A policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; the employment of methods of intimidation; the fact of terrorizing or condition of being terrorized.

Now I fail to see how the Environment Agency has ‘terrorized’ or ‘intimidated’ anyone! C’mon Mr Edgar – a little less vitriol if you please. Surely this is slander?

“In the teeth of huge opposition from technocrats in the Government’s quangos we’ve won a great victory for local people.” [Article]

I love this one! It’s very visual. I imagine hordes of snarling, highly qualified, respectable experts bearing down menacingly upon us; their teeth bared, a frightful rictus running from ear to ear, salivating obscenely as they approach. Basically it’s just name calling ... not very mature really.

“It [the Environment Agency] fears our plan is more benign – a low-cost, low-impact alternative to the draconian plan offered by the Environment Agency – a plan which will create ecological mayhem, ethnic cleansing for the current ecostructure.” [Article]

Blimey! It’s lucky he stopped short of accusing them of genocide or culpability in the Holocaust!!!

Mr Edgar said the plans would infringe the human rights of the residents of the coastguard cottages. He believes they have the rights to access to their properties. [Article]

And this one is just nonsense. The ‘access’ he refers to is a footpath that the residents almost never use and which the Environment Agency has already agreed to maintain following managed realignment in order to preserve the very rights that Mr Edgar claims are being infringed. His comments here are deliberately misleading. Get your facts right Mr Edgar – this is just a lie!!

Though I have to admire Mr Edgar’s enthusiasm, his methods are vulgar and counter-productive to the aims of Rescue the Cuckmere Valley. But I fear we haven’t heard the last barrage of insults from him and with the engagement events coming up soon I suspect that further displays of impropriety are imminent. I begin to wonder why those who support Nigel Newton, and want their objections to be taken seriously, haven’t reined Mr Edgar in and I thereby wonder whether there are any supporters left at all? If there are, then he is doing them no favours. Sadly I am left with the distinct impression that Mr Edgar is flogging a dead horse ... a horse that he may have unintentionally killed himself.