Pledge to protect Pagham Harbour views

County councillor Mike Coleman said he was well aware of the importance to people of the environmental top spot.

The county council is considering giving the management of the reserve to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds charity.

"I don't have a problem with the RSPB coming in and looking after the nature reserve," said Mr Coleman, the councillor for Nyetimber ward.

"But what I do have a problem with is the terms and conditions of the contract that is signed to control how that happens.

"I am not going to let any of that happen until I know what that contract will mean to local people and their involvement with the nature reserve.

"I am a member of a small group which has been set up with county council officers to look at the terms and conditions of any transfer.

"The decision has not been made to hand over the nature reserve to the RSPB or to anyone else. Plan B is there is no change and the reserve stays with the county council."

Mr Coleman told the Pagham annual electors' meeting last week it was too easy for people elsewhere to forget the various close links between the built-up area of Pagham and the nature reserve.

"It is an integral part of Pagham and it is the only local nature reserve in the country which is next to a village.

"That has probably helped the nature reserve become what it is today.

"That has only happened because of the work of a lot of people and organisations over the years," he said.

A total of 1,500 acres of the harbour was designated as a local nature reserve in 1964. Half the area is saltmarsh and mudflats.

The rest is farmland, copses, lagoon, reedbeds and shingle beaches.

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