Revealed: why top duo from Natural England abandoned Cleethorpes walk after just five minutes

                                             

                                                               

Just look at that cloud in the background! Jackson Sage of the Humber Nature Partnership seems oblivious to what is behind him as prepares to start the walk.

TWO Natural England bosses skipped a walk along a Cleethorpes coastal footpath because   . . . it started to rain!

Chairman Tony Juniper and chief executive Marian Spain were scheduled to spend an hour exploring the birds (including redshank) and other wildlife of the saltmarsh in Cleethorpes.

But five minutes into the walk, there was a brief rain shower so, along with other bigwigs, our intrepid duo scrapped the walk and scurried back to shelter.

                                        

Tony Juniper

Said a spokesperson for the delegation: "We walked for about five minutes but had to abandon the planned hour-long walk into the reserve due to the wet weather."

Did she not regard that as a bit flaky - not to say, a dereliction of duty?

"To be fair, it was a deluge," she responded. 

The purpose of their visit had been to 'launch' the first Coronation Coast national nature reserve on behalf of King Charles III who was unable to be present.

                                              

Marian Spain

Earlier, at the resort's leisure centre, speeches were made, a buffet lunch was laid on and plaques were presented.

Then, following their aborted walk, the delegates all went back to their homes down in the sunny south without so much as having seen a single Cleethorpes redshank.                                              

Unseen by the fair-weather naturalists - this  redshank, a species sometimes known as the 'sentinel of the  of saltmarsh' 

The Grimsby News says: A bit wimpish, surely! Admittedly Ms Spain and Mr Juniper were unsuitably dressed, but  for highly-paid professional naturalists to skip 55 minutes of a 60-minute walk because of a modest rain shower beggars belief. Did Captain Scott retreat from the Antarctic when it started to snow? Even worse is that, through their timorous response to the elements, the VIPs dishonoured the very habitat and wildlife they had come to celebrate. When this information is relayed to the King, he will not be amused.