LINK IS SAFE - Don't Believe The Hype...

The sweet pretty things are in bed now of course
The city fathers they're trying to endorse
The reincarnation of Paul Revere's horse
But the town has no need to be nervous

The ghost of Belle Starr she hands down her wits
To Jezebel the nun she violently knits
A bald wig for Jack the Ripper who sits
At the head of the chamber of commerce

Mama's in the fact'ry
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for the fuse
I'm in the streets
With the tombstone blues

Bob Dylan, Tombstone Blues, 1965







Bishop Stafford of Exeter licensed the celebration of divine worship in "Capella Sancte Marie in ville de Pensance, 15th June 1397."

"there is but a chapel in the sayd towne, as ys in Newlyn, for thyr paroches chyrches be more than a myle of." Leland, on Pensants, 1540.





Three quarters of the world population of Halichoerus Grypus, the Grey Seal, lives in the waters around Britain and Ireland. These animals can measure up to 3 metres in length and live on a diet of crustaceans, cephalopods such as squid and octopus; and various types of fish and eels. The seal has an amazing ability to store oxygen in its blood and muscles. When it dives, its heartrate falls from 150 to 10 beats per minute, allowing submersion of up to 20 minutes. Seals are pinnipeds, from the Latin for fin-footed. Sandy Cove has always been seal territory.





This is the poster that was made and displayed on 7th September '08 following Mr Cartwright's "White Elephant" letter to The Cornishman of 4th September '08, breaking the story of the beach that was threatened with the 'the curse of the car-park.' Mr Cartwright, who for many years ran the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company and now runs Trythall Shipping, has put forth a plan that rather than being designed to attract a large pot of public money, sets out an eminently practical, efficient and economically viable scheme that does not demand the destruction of wild habitat. Rather than promoting an uneconomic leviathan of a vessel, his plan will utilize a rapid, stable and graceful catamaran. This would attract admiration by the combination of practicality and elegance that we see manifested in imaginative ventures like the Eden Project. To see Mr Cartwright's plans, go to

http://pznews.co.uk/pzHarbourFerryPlan.htm

Whether or not good sense and economy will prevail over the goldfeverish fundinglust of the RP is all too moot a point. It seems an unfortunate fact that where, as in West Penwith, poverty is identified and funding allocated, the money becomes an end in itself regardless of what it is being used to fund. Another example of this is the (our italics) "Natural" England/National Trust/Heath Project scheme to enclose and graze Penwith Moors. At a forum held to discuss the (already begun) fencing work on 27th November, 53 voters opposed the scheme, with 10 voting in favour. Of the latter, one was a local farmer, two were fencing contractors, and five were employees of the NT/NE/Cornwall County Council. Take a look at

www.savepenwithmoors.com

for pictures of what's been happening up there so far and pray that Sandy Cove and Battery Rocks will be spared such treatment

And now, after working hard in Security Trade,
He's got it made,
The shops that need aid are the ones that haven't paid...

from 'The Battle of Epping Forest', Genesis, 1973.


STOP PRESS!!!
MOVE OVER New York Times; RUN FOR COVER Die Welt; muffin quite like this has ever been seen on Fleet Street. Let's raise a toast to a hot new journal, sister publication to The Limpet... It's.....

THE CRUMPET

The Limpet No.4

Mono-Valve Broadcasting...

SNAKELOCKS ANENOME AT SANDY COVE

(Anenomia Sulcata) Photo by Paul Atlas-Saunders

This subaquatic entity has only one known enemy - The Route Partnership.

Financial Cost of Route Partnership Scheme so far: £547,609.53p.

This money has gone to Hyder, Birse (Not Nuclear), & Halcrow (Plus Trewin Architecture). Three of the richest companies in the UK, with interests in countries that are in violation of treaties with the UK over issues such as murder and torture. No region of the UK is poorer than Cornwall. Should the council not have some form of moral vetting when deciding who to give our tax money to? You can be involved in this process by signing our on-line petition and writing to Hilary Benn, Secretary of State For The Environment and expressing your concern over this planned violation of Nature and Democracy.

STAY OF EXECUTION!

SCHEME TO BUILD OVER BEACH POSTPONED - NOT YET ABANDONED...

Please keep on petitioning & spreading the word - why not print off and hand out a few flyers & do your bit for Mother Nature?





As a direct result of a good number of Penzance townspeople going along to the 'consultation' at St.John's Hall, Penzance, Cornwall, UK, on September 30th '08 & expressing their outrage and resistance to any scheme to destroy Sandy Cove & Battery Rocks, the Route Partnership have postponed the submission of a planning application, apparently until February '09. They are intending to stage a second PR excercise - another chance for the public to express their feelings. Surely the crucial question is just how much legal influence do these Consultations actually have when planning decisions are made? This question will not remain rhetorical but will be put to those in power.

HOW TO VIEW THE COMMENTS THAT MADE THE PLANNERS THINK AGAIN...

There has been much discussion about the difficulty in actually finding the public feedback from the consultation displayed on the web, where the Councils & Route Partnership claim it can be viewed. Everyone I know has been confused by the way in which the information is set out. When you log on to

www.ioslinkharbours.co.uk/en/public-consultat

If you go to Have Your Say, you will see ''Sorry, there are no comments to view at the moment....'' There follow contact details for Birse Nuclear

caroline.mottram@birse.co.uk

and details for Media Enquiries, CCC, Beverly Hill

bhill@cornwall.gov.uk

All this is a smoke-screen of ill-construed Hog-wash to divert you away from the point. To get to the actual comments you must by-pass all this and go to Project Developments , click on Public Consultation, finally click on September 2008 Exhibition & you're there! Easy wasn't it? No-one could ever accuse the Route Partnership of trying to supress the Voice of the People, now could they?

STOP PRESS..... Route Partnership have re-edited their website since last checked the previous day! if you now follow the trail I described, instead of finally showing you the dreaded comments, they now want you to sign up to various media-players - an effective obstacle to alot of us who simply wanted to read the comments, not install a load of technology - most of us have neither the time nor interest. This website is like an outrageous Cretan maze and trying to locate any actual Facts in it is like trying to fix a hole in the ocean , looking through a glass onion. We will contact the Root Partnership & ask for directions - watch this blogspace...

ENJOY YOUR BEACH!

PETITION NOW - Don't be misled by The Cornishman,Route Partnership Scheme for the Isles of Scilly

SAVE THE HOLY HEADLAND IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE BIRTH OF ITS NEW ON-LINE PETITION:

www.thepetitionsite.com/2/save-
the-holy-headland-penzance

Please spread the word about this as a Planning Decision is imminent!

CORNISHMAN CAUSES CONFUSION AND DIVERSION WITH EXTRAORDINARILY MISLEADING HEADLINE

The 6.11.08 issue of The Cornishman grabbed our attention with its arresting headline:

'DEVELOPERS PULL OUT OF £35,000,000 PLAN FOR SEAFRONT'

Given that The Cornishman (local paper in Penzance, Cornwall, UK) has, after at least a couple of years of ignoring the issue, finally recognised its journalistic obligation to inform the public about the Isles of Scilly Link Harbour plans, our hopes were raised...
But no. Closer examination revealed that the seafront development in question was the block of 60's flats opposite the recycling facility in Wherrytown. This has been far from headline news up till now, so it is surprising suddenly to find it on the front page with a wording suggestive of the other, much more urgent seafront development issue in Penzance.
We wonder how many other people have been similarly excited by their first glance at the Cornishman's front page; or have even gone away from a cursory sighting believing the proposals of the route partnership Scheme to have been shelved - sighing a sigh of relief that sanity has triumphed over greed and making a mental note to stop worrying about the issue or doing anything about it.....

NEW SUPER-COUNCIL CHIEF TO GET OVER £200,000 A YEAR!

What new madness is this? We recommend the excercise of Free Speech on this one - if you feel anything about this issue, why not simply let them know. Perhaps someone will make it their business to get up a campaign over this issue...

COUNCIL CHANGEOVER COSTS RISE BY £ 41,000,000
Somebody's doing alright...

TOTAL FIGURE FOR ROUTE PARTNERSHIP SCHEME TO DESTROY BEACH, BUILD TERMINAL AND SHIP: £42,000,000
What a coincidence!

NO REPLY: THE POLICY OF IGNORANCE IN OFFICIALDOM

The theory is that a local council enacts the wishes of the locals. To do this they usually communicate and correspond with those locals - as they make ostensible claims to do in their literature, paid for by the populace.
Things down here in West Penwith are a little different, we regret. Officials in this neck of the woods can't bear to reply when asked about Conservation Designations, invitations to planning meetings, incoming planning applications and policy contradictions, let alone money. This crude strategy of ignoring legitimate enquiries is an attempt to cripple any attempt at challenging the Route Partnership scheme for the Isles of Scilly Link which involves the destruction of Sandy Cove in Penzance. They are trying to thus undermine our legal case against them - in other words our Right to fight with Words and Laws, openly and Democratically for what we believe the overwhealming majority of people believe to be right. We ask you all to bear witness to this. I now submit the letter of 14th October '08:

"To: Head of Sustainable Development, Penwith District Council, Penzance, Cornwall, UK
c.c: Senior Project Manager, Cornwall County Council, Truro, Cornwall, UK
Re: ISSUES ARISING FROM PROPOSED CRIMES AGAINST NATURE:
I have asked for a meeting with you to discuss all questions that remain unanswered I suggest that you have a statutory responsibility to respond to my letters of enquiry. Further to the above I would ask you to justify your course of action over the Beach, in relation to the following Policies - taken from your current statement sold to us yesterday:

SECTION 6: 6.3.3. POLICY CC-1...
SECTION 6: 6.3.13 POLICY CC-3...
SECTION 7: 7.3.81; 7.3.82; 7.3.83...

From the revised edition of '07 POLICY CC-14...

So as well as explaining the apparent contradiction between your stated policies and your practice, we would like to know the following:

How is the Little Cove & Battery Rocks and also the rest of the area under discussion as a possible ferry terminal designated according to your system of clasification? Is there a conservation designation?

We believe we can show that this case requires an Environmental Impact Assesment according to European Law. Your comments please....."

At date of publication we are still awaiting a reply from these representatives. It seems we are going to have to let official pressure drop on them and see if a response comes out. There are democratic channels of complaint which we will have to resort to, but, and it's a big but, we argue that all the time they wasted with delaying tactics be considered owing to our campaign as extra time to fairly construct our case. Supposedly there are rules governing the council's speed of response. This flies in the face of their official propaganda harping on such Hogwash as Performance Indicators, Access to Information, and accountability for one and all...

VIEW FROM THE COVE
12.11.08 12.20pm
Hole-diggers at Democracy Wall... 5 men digging, 1 woman watching, four now stopped work, leaning on the old wall that someone has censored of its Limpet broadsheets... Beautiful day here at Sandy Cove - sea is glistening and melodious waves lap the ancient shore here in Penzance. The growl of a heavy moter vehicle announces the arrival of... you've guessed it... Sustainable Development! Hellish Crows flock around but instead of a ripe field of corn it's a crock of real gold, public gold, that draws these harbingers and nuclear dissBirsers with their Jeckyl & Hyder approach to P.R. (the scraping drag of a digger's great iron bucket on the granite flagstones of the ancient quay) These folks are telling you about how good they are with coastal building, Brighton Pier, and quaint old English Railways, all very wholesome and proper. But just check their web-sites to find out what and who they are really dealing with...

www.halcrow.com/html/our_markets/nuclear/nuclear.htm

HALCROW currently have at least 16 NUCLEAR projects

www.halcrow.com/html/our_regions/asia/china.htm

www.freetibet.org

www.laogai.org

www.organharvestinvestigation.net

www.birsecl.co.uk/html/birse-nuclear/

www.hyderconsulting.com/A/AboutUs/Pages/more.aspx?pageID=5&pageType=Articles

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/08/middleeast.construction

www.hyderconsulting.com/UK/Editorial/Downloads/Nuclear%Decommissioning.pdf

Please don't forget to sign our Petition. Let the People's Will be made Manifest.

The Limpet No.3

The Walrus & The Carpenter were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see such quantities of sand;
If this were only cleared away they said, "It would be grand!"
From 'Through The Looking-Glass & What Alice Found There
Lewis Carol, 1871

"Nobody knows about, nobody knows about
what's going on down there,
Who's gonna tell about, who's gonna tell about,
what's going on down there?
The newspaper pages have nothing to say,
They either tell lies or they hide it all away,
Day after day after day, oh, Nobody knows about, nobody knows about
What's going on down there...."
Malvina Reynolds, 1966

"He who grasps more than he can hold, would be better without any."
Lao Tzu, b.China, 604BC

Shanghai,Chicago,SellafieldSaudi,Iraq,SandyCove

Bringing you the economy re-mix of The Limpet No.2; in monochrome, so you can print & distribute it without spending a fortune on toner!
As controversy rumbles through the Shire your local Paper has taken a quick look at some of these 'consultants' and found them to be many-faceted entities. The Cornish local authorities have chosen, along with the mainstream press, to ignore some of these facets... In Today's World we in the 'civilized West' are all familiar with the idea of ethical business and Fair Trade, and moral accountability is an increasingly accepted criterion when choosing which organizations to do business with. Realizing this, big business will go a long way to create an impression of ethical purity, employing Public Relations people and slick advertising to do this for them. However, a brief glance at Halcrow's own website shows them to be trading with countries like China, where there is ongoing genocidal repression in Tibet; and torture, 'disappearence', (extra-judicial killing by police and soldiers) are being practiced against Buddhists, Falun Gong and other peaceable groups. Tibet's vast Northern wildernesses are now being cleared of their ancient indigenous nomadic populations, with a combination of 'Skytech' sattelite surveilance and round-ups by 'Security Services'. Like the Native Americans or the European Jews before them, you can't help wondering how many of them will survive this 'resettlement'. We will bring you more on China in forthcoming blogs. Halcrow also talk of 'making significant inroads into Saudi Arabia'. The Justice System of Saudi makes medieaval Europe look like a liberal utopia! Of course, there is also the USA, where Halcrow are involved in building the Chicago Skyway private toll road. Although it is still normal practice to trade with the USA, this is done in spite of their record on Human Rights which has deteriorated considerably in recent years. In Guantanamo Bay the USA effectively runs a concentration camp where people are held indefinetely without Due Process of Law. Abduction, arbitary detention, torture are openly addmitted to by the authorities, and all in the name of Freedom. Trading with nations which torture is surely not the best way forward for a truly Free World, big business has the ever-constant opportunity to use its considerable influence to do some real good in this world. As to Halcrow's involvment in the West's incursion into Messopotamia, we will give you any evidence we can uncover. The job of a newspaper is to investigate & publish the Truth, whether the Truth be Sweet or Sour. Also touched on in this issue is Halcrows role of Nuclear Dustman to the Nation. Presumably an organization that stores radioactive waste for countless millenia has a certain amount of clout in the British and international business game, but does that mean that the People of Penzance should be forced into paying them an undisclosed sum of Our money to DESTROY OUR OWN BEACH!!?? We at The Limpet think not - you are Free to make up your own Mind...
P.S. Don't forget to have a nice walk on your local beach...

Is our money being offered to local ethical firms?

"Most people, in fact, will not take trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear."

From: The History of the War fought between Athens & Sparta
by Thucydides the Athenian; 5th Century BC


"You've got to give the people something good to read on a Sunday".
Joe Strummer, 1981

"Bhi an focal do ata focal" (Your words are our words)
The Limpet, 2008

Tenacious Limpet

ORIGINS-DEMONSTRATION-PRESS

ORIGINS
We were first alerted to the news of the planned beach destruction by a letter in the 'Cornishman' newspaper of 4th September 2008 by Mr C Cartwright. We put up our first posters on the 7th, informing and indeed warning the public, since official consultation had clearly failed to do so. Two days later, when planning our campaign down by the Rocks, a large grey seal popping his head out of the waters three times - right in the very centre of the proposed car park - was a great inspiration and motivation to us and a delight to the visiting tourists from Japan and the USA. We knew then we had the approval of the seal...

DEMONSTRATION ...and four days later we were marching through Penzance, stopping for a photo outside the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company Booking Office ( the sole fiscal beneficiary of the scheme), then onto the proposed demolition site. The process of publicising this initial, spontaneous demonstration, through leafleting and chatting to locals, only confirmed our suspicions that the Penzance townspeople were not aware of these plans, although they concern the biggest development in the town for 120 years.
Down by Battery Rocks, convening at the ancient granite wall also scheduled for destruction should the scheme go ahead, children painted badges of dolphins and seals, and musicians played in the blazing sunshine. The painted badge dolphins became wondrously present in the form of two pods crossing Mount's Bay, sometimes leaping fully out of the water, and, like the seal of the previous week, seemed a good omen, a blessing on us from the Bay! By a happy coincidence, as the march arrived at the wall where the word DEMOCRACY was displayed, the Peace Campaigner Peter La Mer was just sailing into view in his yacht, returning from the river Medway in Kent where he was part of the campaign to prevent another coal fired power station from being built. His phone-message of support from the boat was a moment of great inspiration.

PRESS ANALYSIS: Cornishman Inaccurate

No reporter was present at the 'Save the Beach' demo - which was wrongly defined as a 'Music Protest', thus the Cornishman diverted attention away from the point. Their article was actually a revised & misquoted mix of text from one of our own flyers. The photograph was taken after the event and does not show the people who were there - again creating a false impression of this gesture in support of our Natural world.

The Cornishman knew about the plan to turn the beach into a carpark since at least early August '08, if not earlier, but chose not to inform the public then, and has not yet shown any concern for the imminent destruction of this lovely cove & its wildlife.

The Penzance Chamber of Commerce (see Breaking an Egg poster) claim there has been 9 years of public consultation - our research on the streets shows otherwise. What a shame the commercial interests of our town don't resolve to work together to PROTECT Nature instead of killing it off.

MYSTERY SWIMMER...
We believe that the regular swimmers at Battery Rocks were totally misrepresented in the Cornishman. The 'Swimmer' spokesman that they quoted surely speaks rubbish. We challenge Donna McAlister to produce this mystery swimmer, for the purposes of source-accuracy and dialogue.

POLICY:
On 16th September '08, I wrote to the Editor of the above journal asking for clarification on various points, I await his reply.

...............................................SAWYA..........................PEN.......................SANS..........................................

Manifesto

'SAVE THE HOLY HEADLAND'
was formed on 6th September 2008 as an immediate response to the gravely disturbing news that the beach at Battery Rocks, Penzance, is threatened with imminent and total destruction in the name of sustainable development.

We are devoted to peaceful campaigning to protect Nature from destruction at the hands of those who care not for beaches, seals & other Wild things. We aim to show that there is absolutely no possible justification for destroying this irreplaceable piece of Nature.

We are a totally non-profiting group of Volunteers following our conscientious imperative to thwart the rapacious incursion of so-called sustainable development.

Our aim is not only to prevent this Crime against Nature, but to ensure that the entire Holy Headland area is kept in its state of pristine beauty, in perpetuity; as the Natural Birthright of those who are to come after us.

Although our concern is primarily for Nature, we are acutely aware of the profound Historical, Spiritual & Cultural value of Pen Sans & we wish to focus attention on its diverse & priceless attributes. To this end we are initiating a dialogue with all involved parties, in particular the general public. We wish to explore & discuss the Democratic and legal procedures by which events such as these are set in motion.

We are issuing a free broadsheet, 'The Limpet', available on-line and on paper, to give the public in-depth & unbiased information on all matters relating to the Holy Headland beach. If our organisation borrows and plays with words & images, it is solely motivated by the desperate need to prevent a tragic atrocity - after all, there is no copyright to protect this Original Habitat and the Wildlife therein.

This ancient playground of Dolphins & Seals must never become just another soulless and desolate corner of man's blind empire of greed. We trust that a saner generation to come will understand our actions and say with one voice that we trod the right path.

May All Beings be Blessed with Deep Insight into Nature

May They Know Natural Happiness

& May all suffering be Washed Away!