Conservationists and erosion experts will today unveil their visions of how the north Suffolk coastline might change over the next 100 years.

Protecting popular beaches in Southwold and shoring up defences around Lowestoft harbour are among the proposals being put forward in the new shoreline management plan (SMP) for the coast from Lowestoft down to Felixstowe.

The scheme has taken more than two years to create and is available for public consultation from today. (more…)

AN innovative scheme to save a vulnerable stretch of coastline from the ravages of the sea is now complete – and just in the nick of time if this latest photograph is anything to go by.

Work to protect the cliffs, Martello Tower and two homes in East Lane, Bawdsey, near Woodbridge, has finally finished following years of uncertainty.

Campaigners feared the coastline would be swept away and large areas of low lying farmland would be flooded if nothing was done.

But the defence scheme was low on a list of national priorities and the Government said it could not pay for any work.

As result the East Lane Trust (ELT) was formed and the group came up with a ground breaking community project to raise the vital funds. (more…)

From a press release on the Tendring District Council website:

A vital £1million plus scheme to strengthen crumbling sea walls at Holland-on-Sea has been given the green light.

Tendring District Council (TDC) put forward a programme of works for the York Road area.

The project has now received the necessary funding clearance from the Environment Agency following a meeting last month and the aim is to start on site in September.

Planning permission for the scheme is already in place. (more…)

More than 20,000 homes in North Somerset are at significant risk of flooding, according to a new report by the Environment Agency.

The report reveals that North Somerset is the second place at most risk of flooding in the whole of the South West with 20, 415 properties at risk.

The figures reveal one in three properties in the area could go under water as climate change increases coastal erosion and a rise in river levels.

A map published by the agency highlights areas such as Weston Bay, Uphill, Sand Bay, Brean Down and Kewstoke at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea without defences. (more…)

MEMBERS of the public can have their say on long term plans to protect the South Devon coastline.

Organisations involved in coastal management, sea defences and erosion across a large (400km) section of South Devon and Dorset are working together as a coastal group to produce a shoreline management plan.

Graeme Smith, chairman of the group, said: “Individuals, organisations and businesses can contribute their views on how and where we should defend the South Devon and Dorset coastline.

“People will have a say in how the local coastline is managed and defended for the next 100 years.”

The coastal group, which is led by Teignbridge Council, is running a public consultation on the plan until Friday, July 24. For more information visit www.sdadcag.org

Story in This is South Devon

Campaigners battling to save flood defences protecting land around a north Suffolk estuary are putting the finishing touches to plans which could see them repairing and rebuilding the walls themselves.

The Environment Agency announced in September 2007 that it could no longer justify large-scale investment to repair the defences around the Blyth Estuary, near Southwold, in the face of rising sea levels. (more…)

I have an idea how the Government could start on the huge spending cuts that will be required after the next election: replace the environment department with a man carrying a sandwich board bearing the message “Prepare to meet thy doom”. He would do much the same job as Hilary Benn but at a fraction of the cost. Yesterday the UK Climate Impact Programme, a quango set up by his own department, published a report predicting the effects of global warming over the next century.

It warned, among other things, of increasing tempest and flood, speeding up coastal erosion. Mr Benn’s response? We’ll have to redouble our efforts to cut carbon emissions – but there won’t be a penny of extra cash for flood and sea defence. Moreover, there was not a hint of any change of policy over constructing thousands of new homes most at risk of river and coastal flooding, in places such as the Thames Gateway. (more…)

The threat to Britain posed by floods, heat waves and coastal erosion is far more serious than previously thought, according to a group of experts appointed by the Government.

Their report, to be published today, is expected to be the bleakest official assessment yet of the impact of climate change in Britain over the rest of this century.

It will say that the estimated number of homes at risk of flooding is likely to double to about 800,000 within 25 years because of rising sea levels. Average summer temperatures in the South of England will rise by 2C by the 2040s and up to 6.4C by 2080, it will warn, increasing the risk of skin cancers and insect-borne diseases. (more…)

As sea levels threaten a number of historic properties, the government is considering ways to protect them.

Historic monuments that are threatened with destruction could be moved in exceptional circumstances to a “more sustainable location”, according to a consultation paper released by the Department for the Environment. Coastal defences should be improved in less severe cases and valuable assets recorded in case they are lost forever, it says.

Owners of homes which will be lost to the sea could receive grants to cover demolition and moving costs. (more…)

The government last night announced a raft of new ideas aimed at helping people who lose their homes to coastal erosion – but campaigners said that although the plans had merit, they still fell short of the full compensation package necessary.

Launching a three-month consultation into coastal change policy, Defra officials said they would create a new pot of £11m to help investigate how to address change. Local authorities could bid to become coastal change ‘pathfinders’ and access some of the money.

The Defra consultation will also discuss providing cash to meet certain costs of demolition and moving house for those faced with losing their homes to erosion.

But the suggested figures look to be limited to a maximum of £1,000 to cover removals and redirection of post and up to £5,000 to cover knocking down the threatened property. It would not extend to covering the value of homes, even if they had been previously defended and were now subject to damaged or removed sea defences, a key demand of coastal campaigners in recent years. (more…)