Nuclear weapons do a lot of damage...

[charlesp]

So the Poole Harbour Commissioners have dredged Poole Harbour for a new cruise liner berth and for bigger ferries, and in anticipation of this the local council has found the money for an 'Iconic' double lifting bridge over the narrow bit to cater for the resultant extra traffic. As that means there are now two lifting bridges the genius of the plan unfolds and boat owners are (or rather will be) required to potter about in a 'racetrack' shape between the two bridges so that one opens first and then the other. The comments from the sailing community have not been heeded, and construction has started.

This means that Cobbs' Quay marina is going to dwindle, and wither on the vine. Then the Brittany Ferries bosses took their ferry away and based it in Portsmouth where it's cheaper.

So the Port Authorities want to increase their revenue, and they want to do it by getting us in Poole Yacht Club to swap venues with them. We end up with a new marina, with 100 extra berths. They nget our existing Yacht Club and turn it into an 800 berth marina and marine business park.

The new build is huge, and although I haven't done the calculations yet looks like being close on 60 acres of harbour swallowed up in a huge blob off Hamworthy shore. It's big enough to get the new liner RMS Queen Elizabeth in, and you could get the USS Ronald Reagan, or the Enterprise, or the Nimitz in there.

In fact if you look at Google Earth, zoom down to the nuclear weapon craters on Eniwetok Atoll and you may see that the craters are smaller than the damage they're doing.

This is less than a mile from the first address in Hamworthy occupied by British Seagull's John Way-Hope and Bill Pinniger when they started their fledgling company way back in the thirties.

As a Hamworthy resident I'm dead against this plan. Which is awkward as I'm a Poole Yacht Club member, and a committee member there too.

Members of this board may wish to cast a glance at this petition:

http://www.petition.co.uk/drop-a-piano- ... arina-plan

You may have no view at all on the matter, but you have to admit the petition name is good!