Maplin Sands
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The Maplin Sands are mudflats on the northern bank of the Thames estuary, off Foulness Island, near Southend-on-Sea in Essex, England. They are valuable as a wildlife reserve, with a large colony of dwarf eelgrass (Zostera noltei) and associated animal communities.
A screw-pile lighthouse was built on the sands in 1838, which was possibly the world's first.
In the 1960s a plan to build a third major airport for London on the sands was considered, but rejected in favour of a cheaper plan to enlarge Stansted Airport. The Maplin Sands were at that time, and remain, a military testing ground belonging to the Ministry of Defence - see Pig's Bay.
[edit] External links
- Joint Nature Conservation Committee, report on Essex Estuaries
- grid reference TR009888
- Insider account of bureaucratic sabotage against the airport plan at Department of the Environment
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