COUNCIL bosses say nothing is being ruled out as they try to prevent homes and businesses sliding into the sea.

Stretches of coastline in Clacton and Holland on Sea are under increasing threat from erosion.

More than 2,000 homes and businesses will slide into the sea over the coming decades if nothing is done.

Bosses at Tendring Council say “everything possible” is being done to come up with the best solution.

They have been on a fact-finding mission to Felixstowe where more than £10million of work is being carried out along the resort’s seafront to replace more than a mile of old coastal defences.

Cabinet spokesman Pam Sambridge said: “They had very similar issues to us with beach levels dropping and failing defences.

“We have seen for ourselves the new rock groynes being installed, as opposed the fishtail design, and it gives us other options to consider as we take this important issue forward.”

Story in the Clacton Gazette

A CAMPAIGNING councillor who battled for more than ten years to get flood defences improved feels vindicated after work was finally approved.

The Environment Agency announced it will start strengthening the sea wall to protect people, property and agricultural land.

Three miles of tidal embankment will be targeted between Pig’s Bay, north of Shoebury, and Havengore Bridge, Great Wakering.

The agency is currently designing and planning the work, which could run until 2013.

It will involve re-grouting blocks, replacing failed beams, replacing or re-laying disturbed blocks, installing steel reinforcements where necessary and re-profiling and raising any low spots.

Great Wakering parish councillor Brian Efde, in his seventies, has, in the past, been accused of scaremongering for saying homes under threat could become uninsurable.

Mr Efde, of High Street, Great Wakering, said: “Getting the flood walls built is more important than me getting any credit.

“I have been accused of lying and I now feel vindicated.

“The issue affects a lot of people’s homes, so this decision is good news.

“I have had a letter from the Environment Agency explaining they are going to be carrying out the essential works.

“The parish council is now organising a document and we will be meeting to discuss exactly what the Environment Agency is going to be doing.”

The agency has admitted current defences could be vulnerable in a flood or extreme tide.

The work will be carried out with the help of defence technology and security company QinetiQ.

The agency said it hoped to cause as little disruption as possible to the areas affected.

Mark Johnson, the agency’s coastal manager, said: “This work is part of our planned programme of maintenance covering the Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex coast identified as necessary in the Essex and South Suffolk Shoreline Management Plan and earlier studies.’’ Mr Johnson added: “We are always happy to work with local communities.

“We are pleased people in Great Wakering feel reassured by the work which is planned.’’ The Echo reported yesterday how James Duddridge, MP for Rochford and Southend East, welcomed the news.

He said he hoped the work would help prevent a reoccurrence of 1953, when a total of 59 people from Canvey died in floods.

Story by Ryan McCarthy in the Echo

A £1.2m coastal erosion project to help preserve an area of crumbling Essex coastline has been completed.

The 110m (361ft) Crag Walk has been built along The Naze in Walton to help protect the Site of Special Scientific Interest and Naze Tower from the sea.

More than 16,000 tonnes of granite rock have been shipped in to build the walk, which will also include a viewing platform overlooking the cliffs.

Residents have spent 25 years campaigning for the defences.

It is expected the Crag Walk will slow the erosion to 20m (65.6ft) over the next 70 to 100 years, as opposed to the previous one to two metres each year.

The work, which is part of the Naze Heritage Project, has been funded by the Naze Protection Society, Tendring District Council and Essex County Council.

The society’s chairman, David Gager, said it was a landmark moment.

“The completion of this very significant project marks the beginning of a bright new future,” he said.

“The Naze Heritage Project will be delivering a range of initiatives to make the Naze a desirable destination for visitors.”

John Hall of the Essex Wildlife Trust, which manages a nature reserve at the Naze, added: “People will now be able to walk along this new rock structure at the base of the cliffs, learn about history, the fossils and the wildlife.”

“We are now able to move on to Phase Two and fundraise for improved visitor facilities that the Naze deserves.”

The project will be officially opened in June.

Story on the BBC News Website

A stretch of Suffolk and Essex coastline could be transformed into grazing and sea marches as part of a managed way to tackle rising sea levels.

Plans put forward by the Environment Bank and Environment Agency would see businesses pay to offset their green impacts, with the funding used to manage coastal areas.

For the past four years, the Environment Bank has been refining a delivery model for the UK in consultation with central government, NGO’s, developers, landowners, farmers and local authorities.

Now the Shell Foundation has agreed to provide funding and internal expertise for the next year to allow a trial scheme to go-ahead.

It is understood, but not confirmed, that the Government will include some form of conservation credits in its Natural Environment White paper.

So this pilot scheme is, according to the Environment Bank, a chance to get ahead of the white paper which is due out later this spring.

The scheme will in effect create a new market mechanism to enable sea levels to rise in a managed way, with the current site serving as a pilot.

Environment Bank chairman, David Hill, said: “Creating markets for ecosystem goods and services should stop the environment being treated as a non-replenishing extractive industry.

“The model we have developed, together with the trading infrastructure we are constructing, will be capable of listing, registering and validating credits in respect of the full range of emerging markets for ecosystem services.”

Environment Agency area manager, Dr Charles Beardall, said: “We will support the Environment Bank in exploring this approach with the partnerships we have developed throughout our shoreline management plans locally.

“This is a good demonstration of private sector investment working alongside public bodies to create wider environmental, economic and societal benefits for coastal communities”.

Similar schemes exist in the US and Europe and estimates put the value of biodiversity markets globally at $10billion a year.

Story on the edie.net website

A major scheme to preserve The Naze in Walton is well under way with work set for completion by spring 2011.

Work on the £1.2m coastal erosion project began in November after locals campaigned for 25 years to save it.

More than 20,000 tonnes of granite rock has been shipped in which will be used for the access and viewing platforms.

“They are bang on target to get this thing up and running by the spring,” said Neil Stock, Tendring District Council leader.

“Things were delayed by the bad weather by a couple of weeks, not by the snow so much, but by stormy weather out at sea which was causing them a few problems,” said Cllr Stock.

The project includes creating a walkway – ‘Crag Walk’ – a 110 metre long rock walkway along the crumbling cliffs and putting in five interpretation boards that will provide information about the area, its wildlife and the Tower.

“The Essex Wildlife Trust are going to manage the site for us,” said Cllr Stock.

“It’s going to be a fantastic feature where you can go and look at some of the fossils and cliff erosion, but at the same time we are not going to lose one of our great assets,” he added.

The Crag Walk initiative is part of the Naze Heritage Project which was granted planning permission by Tendring District Council in August.

The cliffs contain 55 million year old fossils and are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Story on the BBC Essex website

FLOOD defences across the whole of the Maldon district are to be maintained in a new Shoreline Management Plan, protecting thousands of acres.

But farmers and landowners remain concerned for the future.

They feel they have not had enough of a say on the long-term threat of the encroaching sea.

Most “hold-the-line” defences against the ravages of the North Sea will be looked after for at least another 100 years, according to the plan.

But Andrew St Joseph, the chairman of the independent farmer-led Managing Coastal Change group, said: “Essex has a hugely long coastline, and there is too little input on where all the funds are spent.”

Mr St Joseph, a farmer from Tollesbury, said he questioned the status of the plan. ” I don’t know what it’s for. Some of the decisions made are not entirely sensible.”

Farmers in Essex already contribute £1 million a year in drainage tax to the Environment Agency, almost double the money spent on rural sea walls.

And they have concerns over the maintenance of sea walls.

Only last month the Chronicle featured landowners’ fears that a neglected sea wall could breach at any time between Bradwell and St Lawrence. But the agency said all sea walls are regularly inspected and repaired.

By mid-century, the shoreline plan says some managed encroachment of the sea will be allowed from Salcott Channel to Tollesbury Fleet, Tollesbury Wick to Goldhanger and Steeple Bay.

The strategy, the first since 1997, has been agreed for the entire coastline of Essex and Suffolk, taking account of new information, data and law changes.

It has had to find the best ways to manage flood and erosion risk. It will be a material guide for getting Environment Agency cash for maintenance work.

Essex Coast Officer Nicky Spurr said: “We need improved data and information-sharing between partners and with community groups, increased understanding of the coastal changes on beaches and inter-tidal habitats and to find alternative sources of funding in the present economic climate.”

Story by Peter Baker in the Essex Chronicle

A NEW shoreline plan to try and “hold the line” between the sea and the coast in Essex has been agreed.

The cabinet for Essex County Council approved the new management plan after spending the last year reviewing the options for the county’s coastline.

Tracey Chapman, cabinet member for the environment, said: “It is mostly a hold the line plan and that does mean where it is now.

“It is based on the need to protect lives and protect homes.”

The first plan was agreed 13 years ago and this, the Essex and Suffolk Shoreline Management Plan, is the updated version which now extends to the estuaries along the coast.

Story by Adam Cornell in the Daily Gazette

Work on a £1.2m project to secure the future of The Naze in Walton has moved a step closer to commencing.

Builders J Breheny Contractors have been awarded the contract to create the ‘Crag Walk’ – a 110 metre long rock walkway along the crumbling cliffs.

Coastal erosion has threatened the Site of Special Scientific Interest and its iconic Naze Tower for decades.

Work to build the walkway and a new viewing platform is due to start in early 2011 and be completed by spring.

Funding for the walk, part of the Naze Heritage Project, was announced in February.

The walkway, which will double up as sea defences, will include five interpretation boards about the area, its wildlife and the Tower.

Michelle Nye-Brown, committee member of the Naze Protection Society and one of the owners of the Grade II-listed Naze Tower, told BBC Essex it was an important moment in their efforts to save the Naze from the North Sea.

“The Tower is the symbol of the town of Walton-on-the-Naze and it would be terrible to lose the iconic building that represents your town to the sea,” she said.

“We’ve been campaigning for a really long time to get some sort of protection up there at the Naze, over 20 years of campaigning.

“It’s a major local issue and also for people who like to visit. Obviously it’s a real tourist area and people want to see the tower safe, and also some of the Naze as well.”

“When [the tower] was built it was actually a quarter of a mile inland, now it only stands 50 metres from the edge,” she added.

“If we don’t hurry up and build crag walk as soon as possible we are going to lose that building to the sea.”

Michelle explained the Naze itself was of international importance, but was prone to falling into the sea.

“It’s actually made up of fossils and the cliffs there are made up of fossils that are up to 50 million years old,” said Michelle.

“There’s things like sharks teeth and also shells and it’s actually the shells and the section they come from which is called red crag, which is particularly important because they were dated back to the on-set of the last ice age in Europe.

“So it’s a very important geological site.”

Story on the BBC Website

A farmer on one of the most remote islands in Essex has devised a way of carrying out emergency repairs to flood defences by using a helicopter.

The idea involves flying huge sacks of rock and other material and then dropping them into areas where the current sea wall has been damaged.

Peter Philpot of Potton Island, near Southend, has demonstrated his plan to representatives from over 20 agencies.

Mr Philpot warned some flood defences on the island “were not in good shape”.

“I think they were quite impressed, because we were moving one tonne of rocks, dirt and road planings in heli bags across a thousand metres every minute to the sea wall – which was very impressive,” he told BBC Essex.

He explained parts of the 6.5 metre sea wall around the Ministry of Defence owned land on the River Roach were close to being breached due to erosion and were in need of repair.

“We should have done a lot of work five or six years ago which hasn’t been carried out and some of the sea walls are starting to collapse into the river,” he said.

“There will be another 1953 flood, so let’s start preparing for it, it’s too late when it’s happened.”

Mr Philpot hoped his demonstration would further encourage agencies to help farmers ensure potentially disastrous floods would not occur.

“There are a lot of things to be looked into, to make this dirt available for farmers, as opposed to tipping it into holes,” he said.

“Essex is running out of landfill holes and it would make a big difference if the sea walls were wider, then we wouldn’t have a problem.”

Karen Thomas, Essex coastal adviser for the Environment Agency was one of those at the demonstration and was impressed by what she saw.

“It’s definitely a solution that I think we really want to encourage,” she said.

“We’re working with the National Farmers Union through a local project called ‘Managing Coastal Change’ and we’ve currently got a shoreline management plan in development.

“We’ve asked the NFU and CLA (Country Land & Business Association) and the land owners locally to have some input into that.

“I think realistically with the length of coast we’ve got, and with the significant areas of rural coastline we’ve got, we are being very honest with people and saying ‘we can’t hold the line everywhere for ever at the same standard’.

“So we want to, with landowners, try and find joint solutions that might mean them helping themselves sometimes.”

Story on the BBC Essex website

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.

On Tuesday, April 20 at Castle Hall, Castle Road, Rayleigh, from 2pm until 7.30pm, Friday, April 23 at Great Wakering Community Centre from 2pm until 7.30pm and Wednesday, May 26 at the Freight House, Rochford from 2pm until 7.30pm.

You can also see the full plan for managing the coast and have your say in the following ways by going to www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/library/consultations/116777.aspx or at council offices.

To promote the consultation, Rochford District Council launched the Your Coast photography competition. There is still time to send in photographs of the coast within the Rochford District, including Foulness Island, Paglesham and Wallasea as the closing date for the competition is 19 April 2010.

The winning entries will be professionally framed and also featured in the summer edition of the council’s newspaper, Rochford District Matters.

To enter the Your Coast competition, you can email your image, along with your name, contact details and the location of the photograph to communications@rochford.gov.uk or post them to The Communications Team, Rochford District Council, South Street, Rochford, Essex, SS4 1BW.

Story in the Essex Echo