Quash proposal to rape our fair country
RE: Application to build houses on green fields above the Limeslade to Rotherslade coastal path, Swansea.
I say to Swansea Council, please don’t do this! It is wrong. If Swansea Council gives the go-ahead to the building of houses on a large field to the south of Higher Lane above Mumbles, it would be the wrong decision. It would be a cynical neglect of its responsibility to protect the historic farming land and habitat above the Limeslade to Rotherslade coastal path. It would open up all the crucial remaining fields to being developed.
I first fell in love with Swansea and had my eyes opened to the unforgettable beauty of Gower when some years ago my wife and I parked in Limeslade car park and walked that coastal path. It was winter and the waves were crashing and the spume of the sea was being lifted up over the jutting crags. The slopes above, covered in heather and gorse, provided a surprising stillness and security above the path that contributed to making it an unforgettable experience. Like so many, we realised that we were walking through a coastal landscape that had been relatively unchanged for many thousands of years. Appropriate governance of that landscape and its habitat is a shared responsibility of anyone who cares about the area.
A vital part of respecting Mumbles’ greatest asset, one which draws tourists and residents to be wowed afresh all year round, is preservation of a reasonable distance of wilderness back from the clifftops and headland, especially for that section of the coastal path. There is “green belt” and then there is irreplaceable green-belt land of outstanding significance. The large field to the south of Higher Lane, on which the building of 47 houses is now proposed, is surely that most precious type of green belt, the sort we would expect to be protected forever above all others. The sort we do not have the moral authority to just give away.
The City and Council of Swansea Local Development Plan (LDP) requires foremost that planning decisions are made on the basis of landscape and that they should be seen in the context of the Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). That should argue overwhelmingly that this large field is not built on.
I note that news of the application has been released during the Christmas holidays with deadline to oppose it as early as 3 January (!), the usual cynical ploy of developers. The many who care about that area are in danger of being hoodwinked.
In the 1890s a Swansea businessman who wanted to powder-blow right through the beautiful cliffs a road from Limeslade to Langland was stopped by the Duke of Beaufort and others. For that we give eternal thanks. But never since then has it been more important for the people of Swansea to quash this proposal.
Dr Dominic Mort Mumbles, Swansea