Poorly-paid jobs, run-down towns and the increasing threat of rising sea levels will cause major problems for communities around the Norfolk and Suffolk Coast if solutions cannot be found quickly, environment chiefs said last night.

The East of England Coastal Initiative, which is billed as the first programme to bring together government officials, local councils, voluntary groups and businesses to tackle coastal problems, was launched in Lowestoft yesterday.

The project will allow the groups to work together, access more funding and provide better solutions to problems including employment, deprivation, erosion and flooding. (more…)

The huge challenges facing the region’s coastal communities will come under the spotlight today when a major new initiative is mapped out.

Delegates at a conference in Lowestoft will focus on the East of England Coastal Initiative launched to address issues such as erosion, deprivation and unemployment.

The initiative is billed as the first of its kind in the country and brings together government officials, local councils, voluntary groups and the business sector in a bid to formulate a new strategy to tackle a wide range of economic and social problems. (more…)

FEARS have been raised that a sea wall and even a road could collapse because of dredging work being carried out.

Don Barker, of Harbour Crescent, Harwich, used to work as a coastal protection worker for Tendring Council. About 20 years ago he helped remove roughly a 400-yard stretch of groynes between the end of Barrack Lane, Dovercourt, and a ramp on Harwich beach. The area was due to be regroyned and recharged with sand, but Mr Barker said this never happened. Now he fears if something is not done, the road he lives in could fall victim to the sea. (more…)

A £1.2million scheme to improve coastal defences has been branded a “sticking plaster job” by a leading councillor who warned that more cash was needed for a bigger project.

The work on the sea wall at the end of Hazlemere Road in Holland-on-Sea has been approved by the Environment Agency and funded by the Government after Tendring District Council made a successful bid for a grant.

At a cost of £1.2m work will begin on a new concrete defence with a beach access ramp in October and will be completed by April next year.

But Harry Shearing, portfolio holder for technical and procurement services at Tendring District Council, said although he welcomed the success of the bid it was “not the long term solution.” (more…)