In a written statement to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Hilary Benn):

I am today publishing “Adapting to Coastal Change: Developing a Policy Framework”, which takes forward some of the ideas on supporting community adaptation to coastal change that we consulted on last summer. The work of the coastal change pathfinders that I announced on 1 December 2009 is part of this work.

“Adapting to Coastal Change: Developing a Policy Framework” sets out ideas and guidance on how communities can plan for coastal change as well as looking at what managing change might mean for business, local infrastructure and our historic and natural environment. In doing so, it draws on examples of best practice, including the pathfinders which are looking at new approaches. It also confirms the introduction of a new coastal erosion assistance grant. This is a fixed grant of £6,000 available to local authorities to help homeowners with the costs of demolishing a home at risk of loss to coastal erosion and some basic moving costs.

“Adapting to Coastal Change”, together with a report summarising responses to last summer’s coastal change policy consultation and new guidance on community adaptation planning and engagement, will be published on the DEFRA website today.

Both documents are available online via http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/flooding/manage/coastalchange.htm.

‘HOLD the line at Hengistbury Head – or increase the risk of a flooding disaster’.

These men are fighting a proposed change in the coastal protection plan.

They say in time it could lead to the flooding of Christchurch Harbour, and the erosion of Hengistbury Head. (more…)

Further to last summer’s Coastal Change Policy consultation that ran from 15th June to 25th September, DEFRA have today published a report summarising the 107 consultation responses received.  They have also today published Adapting to Coastal Change: Developing a Policy Framework which takes forward some of the ideas on supporting community adaptation to coastal change that they consulted on last summer.  Both documents are available online via http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/flooding/manage/coastalchange.htm.

Adapting to Coastal Change represents a staging post in the evolution of a policy framework on adapting to coastal change.  CLG’s new Planning Policy Statement 25 Supplement: Development and Coastal Change that was published on 9th March, and the work of the 15 coastal change pathfinders that were announced on 1st December last year, are both key parts of this evolving picture.  Lessons learned by the pathfinders will help inform future developments of this framework in the form of further guidance and/or policy.  Further details about the pathfinders are available on the DEFRA website via http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/flooding/manage/pathfinder/index.htm.

THE Government has ruled out providing help to tackle the problem of shifting sands at Tynemouth.

North Tyneside Council’s cabinet will be told tomorrow of the toll which winter winds and high tides have taken on the Blue Flag Longsands beach and dunes.

The erosion has left a sheer face to part of the dunes system which has led to the closure of some public access points.

The council has approached the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in an effort to secure funding to improve coastal protection for the Longsands.

But Defra has said there is a limited budget available nationally to tackle coastal erosion, and the Environment Agency prioritises funding on a national basis to address the highest risk areas.

“The sand loss you have described at Tynemouth would not meet the priority criteria for funding,” Defra told the council. (more…)

Adapting to climate change needs to become as much of a priority as cutting emissions, MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee argue in a report out today.  Climate projections show that Britain can expect wetter winters, drier summers and a higher likelihood of flash-floods, heat waves and droughts.  The report concludes that Government must do more to raise awareness of the need to prepare for a changing climate.

Tim Yeo, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee said:

“For a long time the climate change debate has focused on reducing carbon emissions, but adapting to the inevitable impacts of rising global temperatures is equally critical.

“Even if all the world’s power stations were switched off tomorrow past emissions mean that some climate change will still take place and we will face more floods, droughts and heat waves.

“We must act now to protect people, property and prosperity and safeguard the natural environment. Delay will only impose greater costs on future generations.

“The Government must be imaginative and establish new and sustainable sources of funding and support for adaptation.” (more…)

LEISURE beaches around Torbay are at risk of disappearing under rising sea water levels.

Torbay Council and its development arm, the Torbay Development Agency, are drawing plans to see what impact climate change could have on the Bay’s environment and tourism-based economy.

Steve Parrock, chief executive of the TDA, said at a meeting of the Torquay Chamber of Commence that general flooding and rising sea levels were a reality developers in Torbay had to take into account looking ahead over the next 25, 50 and 100 years. (more…)

CHALETS which have stood proudly on the east coast for 70 years have become the latest victims to erosion.

Artist Saffron Waghorn says 20ft (six metres) of the Skipsea coast has been lost since December – the worst she has seen in her 20 years living in the area.

Half a dozen chalets with asbestos issues and concrete foundations are currently being demolished because of their position on the crumbling coastline. (more…)

It is the quintessential coastal holiday destination, complete with a historic harbour popular with yacht owners and idyllic countryside that offers visitors a glimpse of a more traditional, genteel way of life.

Such is the charm of Southwold, on the Suffolk coast, that Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah took their two sons on a family holiday there and each summer the town attracts thousands of music fans who come to enjoy the Latitude Festival.

But now large areas of the popular beauty spot are to be lost under government plans to abandon the flood defences that have protected the town and its surrounding countryside from the sea for more than 400 years. (more…)

It is an aerial picture that evokes the full force of the North Sea – its waves breaking against a vulnerable cliff-face.

And it is one that makes it all too clear why residents in Corton, to the south, and Hopton, to the north of this stretch of coastline between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, are increasingly anxious about the future.

Their concerns were voiced to the minister for marine and natural environment Huw Irranca-Davies when he visited the area on Monday and saw the depleted beach at Hopton and crumbling sea defences at the northern end of Corton. (more…)

COASTAL erosion campaigners were left with mixed feelings following the visit of a high-powered government official to hear their concerns and ideas.

Minister for marine and natural environment Huw Irranca-Davies MP dropped in at various sites along the Norfolk coast to find out more about plans to defend the shoreline from an encroaching sea.

One of the areas visited was Hopton, to which he had been specifically invited by Tony Wright MP. (more…)