96
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
Observations have been made to The Nature Conservancy on
the proposal to build a new road on Benfleet Marsh, an S.S.S.I.,
and on the proposed London North Orbital road where it passes
an S.S.S.I.
Development proposals (and even rumours of them) have been
investigated at Brightlingsea Creek (speedcraft training scheme),
Bradwell (gravel pit development as caravan site and water-ski
centre, which has been refused), North Fambridge (enclosure and
drainage of Saltmarsh), Gosfield Lake (international water-ski
centre) and other places and action taken where appropriate and
possible.
There recently developed a threat to the fine chalk flora of the
Grays Chalk Pit, which is an S.S.S.I. This threat is not one which
arises from development within the meaning of the Act but from
the depositing of overburden from adjoining workings. However,
the Trust took up this matter direct with the owners and there is
good hope that this threat will not develop to the extent first
feared.
In every county there are certain common problems, but those
arising from population increase and development are particularly
acute in Essex. The mid-1962 population of the administrative
county (that is, the geographical county less the county boroughs
of East Ham, West Ham and Southend-on-Sea) of 1,896,000 is
expected to rise to 2,100,400 by 1971 and to 2,243,300 by 1981.
So far as the provision of houses is concerned, it is reasonable to
say that over the next twenty years at least ten thousand houses
a year will have to be built. This information has been kindly
supplied by the County Planning Department.
The 1961 Census results have recently been published and
these show that the population of the whole of Essex has risen
by nearly a quarter of a million in ten years and at the census
stood at 2,288,058.
From other sources we learn that the number of cars on the
road is expected to double in the next ten years.
Further, in an article in "The Observer" of the 11th November,
1962, Neal Ascherson wrote in his article entitled 'The Divided
Kingdom': "The architect and planner, Derrick Rigby Childs,
calculates that . . . . if the south-east's present rate of growth is
maintained, its population density by about 1985 will be twice
that of contemporary Holland, the most thickly peopled country
in the world. In other words, if the drift of population continues,
the merging conurbations and subtopias of the south will cover
the whole region. Its millions and their cars will clot its life to a
standstill".
What of the problems of the future which face the nature
conservation movement, particularly in our own county, and
what are the tasks that lie ahead? There is, of course, the con-
tinuation of the work under the various headings just referred to
—and this work is growing in intensity and complexity.