Yorkshire Post: “End of coast defences ‘will hit farmland’”
YORKSHIRE has yet to wake up to the threat of the Humber Flood Risk Strategy, according to National Farmers’ Union secretary for Holderness Ed Davey.
He says farmers need to realise that it is not only cliff-edge cottages which are threatened by the Environment Agency’s proposed abandonment of coastal defences.
The strategy, combined with the likely rise in sea level, will mean thousands of hectares of farmland being flooded by the sea on a regular basis within 40 years – and many more could be hit by knock-on effects.
“One fifteenth of the whole UK land mass – 100,000 hectares – drains into the Humber ” he said this week, as he urged NFU members to attend a meeting next week.
The redrawing of the Environment Agency’s frontier of responsibility threatened to knock out several drainage systems which depend on “clough gates” into the mouth of the river, he added.
The uncertainty threatened a blight on land and property values either side of the A1033, between Hull and Withernsea, and in a similar swathe along the south bank.
He said: “It is still unclear to the general public what is at stake and how we as a rural community might be affected.
“While a significant amount of farmland will be affected, there will also be a huge impact on the residents of East Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire.”
The Yorkshire Post reported earlier this year that Government’s calculations of profits and losses from withdrawal from the existing coastline had failed to take account of potential crop losses of £70m from 210 square miles of land directly threatened.
The meeting will be held at the Gardeners Country Inn – also known as the Gardeners Arms – at Coniston, near Hull, next Thursday, from 6.30pm.
Humber Strategies Manager for the Environment Agency Philip Winn and MP for Beverley and Holderness Graham Stuart will be there, with Mr Davey.
The same three speakers will lead a public meeting on Wednesday, October 29 at Hedon Town Hall, from 6.30pm, along with deputy leader of East Riding Council Jonathan Owen.
Story by Chris Benfield in the Yorkshire Post
