Inner Marsh Farm Communicae

Muchas gracias amigo to Ian ‘007’ Fleming for forwarding me an e-mailed response to issues he and many others have regarding the painful ‘development’ of the Inner Marsh Farm reserve.

(I read in despatches that 007 is currently on a secret mission somewhere in deepest Norfolk - think more ‘Flycatcher’ rather than ‘Spycatcher.’)

Anyhow, here is an RSPBwallah’s reply to perceived neglect of their North West Frontier Province reserves.

Dear Mr Fleming,

Thank you for your inquiry concerning Inner Marsh Farm.

I want to reassure you that the RSPB has not got a bias to spending more money in one part of the country at the expense of another. We have 186 reserves that are open to the public. The amount of visitor provision varies greatly from small sites with a simple trail through to sites with full visitor facilities including toilets, visitor centre, cafe and shop. Only thirty of our sites have full visitor facilities, including Leighton Moss in the North West. The RSPB has been investing many millions of pounds to create reserves in places where we haven't made provision for our members. For example we opened Rainham Marshes to provide a reserve for our members in London and Saltholme our first major reserve in the North East. This programme continues and we will be opening Middleton Lakes to provide a much needed site for people living in the Midlands.

At Inner Marsh Farm we are committed to creating a new reception building with toilets, a new hide and additional paths by Summer 2011. I recognise that this may seem a long way off, but the development of visitor facilities takes time. For most of our major sites we are reliant on external funding from bodies like the lottery. In addition, they require a lot of work to plan and build.

I hope that my e-mail reassures you that we do value our members and that we are making progress in making Inner Marsh Farm even better.

Best wishes

Paul

Paul Forecast
Head of People Engagement

Well, at least they had the courtesy to reply fully to 007’s inquiry.

I’m not sure how au fait he is with the situation at Inner Marsh Farm (the constant delays, obfuscation and secrecy) but Summer 2011 would not be a long way off if there was a guarantee that the work will finally be completed.

It would be refreshing if the organisation was a little contrite too. Sadly – as is the case with many large bodies – nobody will ever concede that they are culpable of doing something poorly.

I will keep saying it until I am blue in the face though: it is UNACCEPTABLE that Inner Marsh Farm given its primacy amongst RSPB reserves still does not have adequate toilet facilities. Why don’t they install temporary bogs until the new part of the reserve is able to receive visitors?

As for neglecting some reserves at the expense of others – can you really see them failing to rebuild a hide within 27 months if the reserve in question was at Titchwell as oppose to a remote backwater in Flintshire – the Point of Ayr has had a raw deal.

At least we have some deadlines though, albeit poetically vague ones.

Inner Marsh Farm: to be completed by ‘Summer 2011.’
Point of Ayr Hide: to be completed by ‘the onset of winter 2010.’

Watch this space…

Until later.