Communities were yesterday given the clearest indication yet by a government agency that they can build their own DIY sea and flood defences if no government money can be found to protect homes and land.

But the move was branded as “yet another cop out” in the management of the coast by a leading coastal campaigner.

The Environment Agency (EA) plans to stop maintaining defences around the Blyth estuary, near Southwold, over the next 20 years, which could leave thousands of acres of farmland, about 20 homes and the A12 Ipswich to Lowestoft road at increased risk of flooding.

Responding to questions about the EA’s stance on the matter, regional director Paul Woodcock said villagers living nearby could be shown how to help themselves if there is no money available to repair the flood banks.

The DIY option has at least two precedents. In April this year, members of the Blyth Estuary Group filled 2,000 sandbags to rebuild the defences at Tinker’s Marsh. And 18 months ago villagers in Happisburgh collected cash to the tune of around £50,000 to help back a larger sum from North Norfolk District Council to place rock armour on the beach.

Mr Woodcock said that although £8m was being spent on improving flood defences in East Anglia, tough decisions needed to be made about which other areas could no longer be protected.

He said: “We’re not going to be able to protect everybody out there. We want to build trust with the communities which are going to be affected by flooding.

“Local communities could get involved in maintaining their own defences. There are options for people to do that and to club together.

“The idea is to work with communities, rather than just tell them what is going to happen. With a metre of sea level rise predicted over the next 20 years, the pressure is really going to be on. That water has to go somewhere.

But Malcolm Kerby, coordinator of the Happisburgh based Coastal Concern Action Group, blasted the wider concept of government telling people to protect themselves.

“It is something people have done, as we have in Happisburgh,” said Mr Kerby.

“But by encouraging it, the government is again revealing how little it understands the management of the coast.

“They are asking people who live on the coast to pay twice – once through their taxes and again through funding their own schemes.

“They are telling people they have got to paddle their own canoe and it’s a complete cop out, yet again, and shows how badly mismanaged our coast has been and continues to be.

“Government is trying to push the people down a road which we do not want to be pushed down. They say there isn’t enough money to defend, but what that means is they would rather spend the money elsewhere. Everyone else gets bailed out except for us living on the coast – just look at the money handed to the banks.

“The government used to stop people defending their own, now it suits them they say it’s fine – but what are the limits to that, if we get half a million pounds can we use it to do whatever we want? It doesn’t add up.”

Story by Haley Mace in the Eastern Daily Press