We always welcome a Letter to the Editor to share with readers. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch. This letter from Lake resident, Ron Chonner. Ed
Dear Editor
I understand that it is the aim of the Council to make the Isle of Wight economically self reliant. May I suggest that in doing so they are missing one very obvious trick?
I refer to the thousands – perhaps millions – of tons of sand lining our coast. Not so long ago this sand was in fact an asset to our economy, in that holidaymakers from all over the country arrived to enjoy our golden stretches of beach.
But this attraction has faded considerably in favour of warmer climes. Even at the height of the season nowadays the number of holidaymakers sunning themselves are sparse in number, with vast swathes of sand left empty and neglected.
End the neglect
The time has come therefore to end this neglect of what is a priceless asset by putting the sand to a different and altogether more profitable use.
It is time, I suggest, to move in the dredgers and the barges and to market our sands to the building trade.
By confining such operations to the considerable off-season period, and where necessary to the early hours, such activity need not interfere with what remains of our holiday trade. While offering at the same time the opportunity of employment to our youngsters.
Possible solutions?
I believe – and here I am open to correction – that such usage has proved difficult if not impossible in the past because of the unsuitability of coastal sand. Perhaps because of impurities, such as the considerable salt content. But such a drawback, if indeed one exists, can in these modern times surely be countered by some chemical additive or other.
In any case, the above is a suggestion only. I look forward with interest to the views of others on the subject.
