FLOOD and coastal erosion risks in shoreline areas will be outlined in a series of public exhibitions in March.

The Environment Agency will invite Bournemouth, Poole, Wareham and Swanage residents to hear plans for tackling flood and erosion risks over the next century.

The impact of climate change will also be explained, along with various options for managing these risks. (more…)

Every resident in West Norfolk could be charged for maintaining sea defences to secure the future of the area’s coastline.

A new report outlines different ways of paying for defences between Wolferton Creek and Hunstanton.

Councillors will discuss the North Norfolk Coastal Change Pathfinder Programme document tomorrow. (more…)

Plans to clear debris from the beach at Happisburgh have been approved and assurances have been 
offered about the possible impact it may have on the already occurring erosion.

The debris consists of the remains of old coastal defences, lost cliff-top structures and the old, now eroded lifeboat ramp.

Planning officers say that where possible, concrete remains will be incorporated into the existing rock defences. (more…)

They call him all sorts here in Hunstanton — the Rock Man, Fred Flintstone, Rocky, even King Canute, after the Viking warrior and English king who commanded the waves to stop. But while King Canute didn’t really do much — just sat on his throne ordering the waves to stop, and getting his feet wet when they didn’t — 73-year-old Michael Kennedy is rather more hands-on in his battle against the North Sea.

For six days a week (‘I always have one day off, so I can watch Chelsea’), 52 weeks a year and for the past 14-and-a-half years, he has been out in rain, sun, sleet, snow and hail (‘the only thing I can’t bear is fog’), collecting rocks from Hunstanton’s sandy beach and building his own makeshift sea-wall at the bottom of the cliffs.

Read the full story by Jane Fryer in the Daily Mail

The ground beneath campaigner Malcolm Kerby’s feet is on the move again – but this time the cause is not coastal erosion.

Mr Kerby is having a “big wobble” and needs to make some important decisions.

He turned 70 in December, his fight for justice in Happisburgh has reached a major landmark and now he is seriously considering whether or not to “throw in the towel.” (more…)

Funding for vital flood defence schemes in the South West is to be cut by 16 per cent next year, the Government has confirmed.

But officials refused to produce a list of projects that will not get state aid as a result of the region losing £6 million in 2011/12.

Ministers announced that £521 million would be spent on protecting homes and businesses in England from April. (more…)

39 new flood and coastal defence projects have been announced today as part of Government plans to reduce the risk of flooding and coastal erosion in England.

Of these new projects 21 will provide additional protection to over 13,000 households at risk of flooding. The remainder mainly relate to vital repairs and safety enhancements to existing defences.

Over the next year £521m will be spent managing flood risks, with investment in the new schemes, ongoing work or completion of 108 projects already under construction, and a further 187 schemes receiving funding for development work such as feasibility studies, for possible construction in future years. (more…)

THE devastated owners of a clifftop mansion told yesterday how a landslide caused their garden to crash 130ft into the sea – leaving the dream home perilously close to the edge.

Hundreds of tonnes of mud, dirt and a trees plunged down the cliff face onto the beach after 16ft of garden were lost to coastal erosion.

The landslide – the second in four days – comes almost three years to the day after the same property lost 80ft of land and several trees under similar circumstances. (more…)

‘We have to be finished by 10 past three,” Michael Kennedy instructs me. “I never miss Countdown.” In fact we have to be finished by five past, because he always watches it with a cup of tea and needs to make himself one. The clock really is ticking.

Kennedy, a 73-year-old retired engineer who lives in Hunstanton on the north Norfolk coast, has suddenly become a celebrity. “I’ll be on the ITV news tonight,” he tells me. “And the Daily Mail are sending someone to meet me tomorrow.” The reason for this new-found fame? Kennedy is the latest sighting of a much-loved species – the Great British Eccentric. Countdown is not his only obsession. For 14 years he has spent two hours every day (except Saturdays) collecting rocks on Hunstanton beach to construct sea walls as a defence against the erosion that is rampant along this stretch of coast. “I’m like King Canute,” he says with a laugh. (more…)

The Environment Minister, Jane Davidson, has approved a Welsh Assembly Government grant of over £2.7m million towards the first phase of coastal protection works Colwyn Bay. Work is expected to start on the project later this month.

The first phase of the Council’s coastal defence strategy, estimated to cost £5 million, has already been approved for £2.3 million from the European Regional Development Fund. (more…)