Thank you for the responses so far; opinions are, as I suspected, divided not only on the heather but on the shaping of the new bunker.
The bunker was not rebuilt simply for aesthetic reasons. It had become impossible to maintain and the drainage was shot. It was hard pan in dry weather and flooded at the first hint of rain. As the adjacent green was having its drainage renewed, doing the bunker at the same time was an obvious plan. Here is another, less flattering photo of the old, much disliked bunker.
Inevitably, as it was the greenkeeper doing the rebuild and the shaping, future maintenance played a large part in the design. The great thing is that we now have a well-built and well-drained bunker at minimal expense. The sand-line and/or shape of the face can easily be tweaked; the fundamentals at least have been successfully addressed.
Ideally we would engage an experienced architect with a track record in MacKenzie course renovations to advise us on the aesthetics of this and future essential bunker work. Unfortunately the club finances are such that this kind of expenditure will be difficult to justify to the membership - particularly the "vocal" ones!
We are however, working on it!
Keep the comments coming. They are extremely useful.