Sir, – Moray Council has been fully aware of the situation at Kingston beach (Press and Journal, January 17) and the threat from the sea for well over 10 years.
Innes Community Council organised a visit for a number of councillors in 2012. In December that year, a large storm caused much damage to the beach head and pushed it much closer to the village.
Moray Council contracted consultants and over the next 12 months a comprehensive plan was drawn up detailing plans to prevent further erosion towards the village. Those plans are still on file and are as relevant today as ever they were.
Erosion to the west of the village has been on going for the past five or six years. There is as big a threat to Kingston from that area as there is from the area behind Beach Road.
Members of Garmouth and Kingston Amenities and Innes Community Council had talks with council officials in 2019 to express the fears of the community. Again they were ignored. Over this winter, and because of lack of action with the River Spey at Queenshaugh, the mouth has now changed dramatically.
The sea has forced the gravel bar inland on the east side of the mouth, forcing the river ever closer to Kingston and through its former course, a course it took when Moray Council refused to listen to locals in 1962. That failure to listen then to local advice caused two houses to be washed away in Kingston.
Members of the Garmouth and Kingston community feel like it’s Groundhog Day when the council talks about river and coastal erosion.
What the community wants is action to prevent erosion, not more money poured into the pockets of private consultants.
James A Mackie, Garmouth, Moray.
Hunt on for elusive Brexit dividend
Sir, – So our minister for the 18th Century, one Jacob Rees-Mogg, has been promoted to the grandly titled new position of Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency, or Oxymorons for short.
If anyone still needs proof that Brexit was sold without a plan, then this is surely it.
Johnson is trolling poor Jacob (and us) of course.
If there were indeed Brexit opportunities to be had then these would have been identified and loudly trumpeted during the EU referendum campaign. The predictions that were made at the time by JRM and his fellow conspirators are increasingly seen to be false as the Covid veil gradually lifts.
One day the Brexit benefits are 50 years into the future, according to our Jacob, now they are just round the corner, but he still doesn’t know what they are.
So in desperation he has written to Sun readers, regaling them with words having as many as five syllables, asking their help to find that elusive Brexit dividend.
Sun readers may well have their fingers on the nation’s pulse and converse with polysyllabic words for all I know, but he wisely chose not to appeal to Guardian readers who might have deployed their fingers rather differently. Perhaps P&J readers can help?
William McLeod, Netherbrae, Turriff, Aberdeenshire.
Rewriting history is not way forward
Sir, – A statue is torn down and thrown into Bristol harbour. A jury finds no one guilty of criminal damage. We can understand why. But we ignore the rule of law at our peril. Beyond lies anarchy.
Trial by media or the “Twitterati” are unlikely to enhance a just society.
Those who deny history or choose to rewrite it look back on an ignominious past.
Being overly politically correct and promoting a controversial value-based society often at odds with established fact may have unintended consequences.
The denial of free speech followed by authoritarian government. Personal freedom is currently under serious threat on many fronts. The future must be free and fair for all.
Bill Maxwell, Mar Place, Keith.