Thursday 22 January 2009

Woodn't it be lovely?

Early this morning I heard from Steve Coates (Kingsdowner) that some wood had been washed up at Kingsdown.

The 1,500-tonne load fell from the Sinegorsk cargo ship in the English Channel in rough seas on Monday. It was forecast to come ashore in Sussex, but the change in wind direction has brought some of it to Kent. To be honest the amount on the beach at St Margaret's was pretty small, but it did bring some visitors.

One our our more well known citizens had been collecting some of it up and had left it by the boats.

The wood was spread along the beach, and in the distance you can see a yellow dot patrolling the length of the Bay.
A young and cold PC came to tell me that if I wanted to take any away I would have to her my name car registration, and I could only take a reasonable amount, what ever that means. She said that the owners of the would might want it back and that they would be supplied with the details of any collectors.
This is the official view as reported in the Times: "Kent Police said they were working closely with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Receiver of Wreck. The police have been authorised by the Receiver of Wreck to act on her behalf."

"People failing to comply with their directions could be committing an offence and may be arrested, and failure to report recovery of timber to the Receiver of Wreck is a criminal offence. On conviction, people can be fined up to £2,500."

Looking at the pictures of several beaches on Thanet, some areas had a lot of wood arrive. It seems that very little notice was taken of these police warnings, with loads being taken off in vans, cars and trucks. Here, at St Margaret's, I was perplexed when two vehicles arrived to lend support to our young law keeper from Deal. There are many in the village that would like to see such prompt attention shown when real crimes occur, but for a few stick of wood?

4 comments:

Eduardo Miguel said...

- A cada click uma história, um fragmento de vidas que se cruzam e que com seu trabalho ajuda a contar, dar valor e á manter...
- Continue com suas histórias em clicks colecionando seus bons momentos, parabéns e sucesso!
Saudações do Brasil

- To each click a history, one I break up of lives that if cross and that with its work it helps to count, to give value and to keep…
- It continues with its histories in clicks collecting its good moments, congratulations and success!
Greetings of Brazil

Kingsdowner said...

The wood's gone from Kingsdown now - scavenged or floated off to Thanet?

Large numbers of auks flying south this morning with a few divers and flotillas of grebes swimming just offshore. Hope they don't get splinters.

swimmer said...

I suppose guarding a load of wood most people could not care less about is another one of those
police soft options. Its not going to give them any aggro or paperwork.

Tony Morris said...

I don't think the young WPC who had drawn the short straw of patrolling in that foul weather would have thought it a soft option, but certainly for her seniors it would be an very easy job.