RESIDENTS are being urged to have their say about the future of the coastline in Rochford.

Consultation on the Essex Shoreline Management Plan is open until June 18 and if you live in Rochford District you can register your views at a number of drop in events.

The plan has been developed by the Environment Agency and there will be the opportunity to speak with officers from the Agency at several events. (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…)

Suffolk and Essex Shoreline Management Plan released for consultation, Environment Minister Huw Irranca-Davies vists Hopton

Watch the video on BBC Look East

Rare reconnaissance photographs of the 1953 floods which engulfed large parts of East Anglia have come to light.

The pictures were shot by the RAF and, until recently, some of them were classified.

Watch the video clip on the BBC News website

From a press release on the Tendring District Council website:

A vital £1million plus scheme to strengthen crumbling sea walls at Holland-on-Sea has been given the green light.

Tendring District Council (TDC) put forward a programme of works for the York Road area.

The project has now received the necessary funding clearance from the Environment Agency following a meeting last month and the aim is to start on site in September.

Planning permission for the scheme is already in place. (more…)

THE cost of coastal flooding in Suffolk and north Essex could run into billions of pounds, an insurance trade body has warned.

Climatologists predict sea levels on the east coast could rise by 40cms (15.75 inches) during the next 40 years, the Association of British Insurers said.

The financial impact on Lowestoft alone would be £550million, with more than 17,500 homes and commercial properties at risk of flooding. (more…)

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…)