On a visit to Greymouth last weekend I was given a cutting from your paper regarding the destruction of the Cobden Air Raid Shelter.

Several years ago I started documenting the remains of our Coastal Defence sites for precisely this reason. Our coastal defence heritage is disappearing, usually sanctioned by local or national government under the guise of public safety or to make way for infrastructure development. Where was the consultation? I believe that the Cobden air raid shelter may have been the only structure of this nature left in the country and consider its destruction to be Council sponsored vandalism.

Last year I visited this historic Cobden coastal defence site and photographed the remains for my web site. This web site was started, not as a definitive history of our WWII coastal defences, but a record of what is remaining, that people can visit the site and see some remaining local military history. By doing this I was hoping to raise awareness of the historical value of these sites. To find that this site was destroyed has disappointed me, a piece of our military heritage has disappeared forever. Not the first time by the Grey District Council. The destruction of the pill boxes and road blocks on the Point Elizabeth road several years ago is another example.

You can visit my web site to see what I have written, www.nzrifle.com/ and see the original plans of the site, historical facts and a picture of the gun. Many hours research reading the Battery Log at Archives NZ. and other documents.

The West Coast has a fine history from WWII, both Regular Army and an exceptionally strong Home Guard. The remains of these sites should be treated as important historical sites as a tribute to those Coasters who manned them over a time of uncertainty. Not destroyed at the whim of a beaurocrat who sees them as an obstacle to development. Would this be done to a historic Pa site, I think not.