A COUNCIL has pledged to seek more funding to help communities affected by coastal erosion amid fears it may lose the support of residents when money for an innovative aid project dries up next month.

A £1.2m scheme funded by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is due to end in March, and East Riding Council, which administers it, said it was determined to explore other sources of finance to assist some of the most exposed households in England.

All of the money in the East Riding Coastal Change Pathfinder project (ERCCP) has now been allocated to households in the Aldbrough, Cowden, Hornsea, Skipsea, Tunstall and Ulrome areas, and 35 of them have been helped adapt to the impact of “coastal change”.

The scheme has also funded the demolition of 43 dangerous structures and properties.

Coun Jane Evison, portfolio holder for rural issues and cultural services, said: “The council cannot turn back the forces of nature but what we have for the first time been able to do through Coastal Pathfinder is to provide real practical support and assistance to people most at risk to coastal erosion .

“As the project comes to an end in March, I want to stress that we will not be resting on our laurels but will continue to lobby hard for additional funding, recognising the strong case for supporting people living on undefended East Riding coastline that does not meet the Government criteria for sea defences, and highlighting how much can be achieved with relatively small amounts of money.”

A council review of the scheme said residents’ expectations had been raised that assistance would continue to be available – and warned that much of the co-operation from the communities affected may be lost if aid is suddenly withdrawn.

It said: “As a result of communities gaining a better understanding of coastal change issues and management policies, demand for adaptation assistance is growing.

“The delivery of the ERCCP has inevitable led to a considerable increase in expectations for ongoing support amongst coastal residents.

“If funding is not made available on an ongoing basis there will be a loss of momentum and a real risk of communities being unwilling to work with the authorities in the future.”

It also notes that Defra has yet to publish guidance about the future funding of “coastal change adaptation measures”, or set a time scale for the publication of the national coastal change policy.

The ERCCP was not intended as a compensation scheme, but to provide practical support to those most at risk.

The money has been used to help with the cost of property demolitions and site restorations, which was previously born in full by residents.

In addition, financial support has been provided to cover practical relocation costs and for establishing residents in their new homes in safer locations.

People have also received money towards removals and the purchase of essential white goods and furnishings for their new properties.

The support offered to each resident has been based on an assessment of individual circumstances and the criteria set by the council.

There is also a small grants fund to enable individuals, groups and businesses in the East Riding to develop innovative approaches to coastal erosion and coastal flood risk management.

Earlier this week, a new report showed that rates of erosion have more than doubled on some stretches of East Yorkshire’s coast.

The average rate of land loss on the East Coast is 1.5 metres to 2.5 metres a year. But 10 metres was lost south of Withernsea and Hollym, while at Aldbrough, 8.5 metres disappeared, and at Waxholme, north of Withernsea, seven metres were lost to the sea.

Story in the Yorkshire Post

Bulldozers are due to move in and demolish Happisburgh’s doomed cliff-top homes this spring as the blighted seaside village prepares for a new lease of life.

Angie Fitch-Tillett, North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) cabinet member for the coast, said the council’s final purchase of nine erosion-threatened Beach Road homes had been wrapped up just before Christmas.

She added: “We are looking to get them down in the foreseeable future. In the worst case scenario it will be a couple of months.”

The news has come as a huge relief to defiant Bryony Nierop-Reading, the sole remaining permanent resident, who refused to sell her bungalow.

She has been frustrated at the delay in demolishing her former neighbours’ homes and angry at having to call the police because of intruders in the empty properties.

Mrs Nierop-Reading, 66, claimed NNDC had failed to make them secure until contacted by the News last week.

Mrs Fitch-Tillett said time was still needed to complete legally-required asbestos and bat surveys on the properties and NNDC also had to wait until a Happisburgh landowner, who has not been identified, had submitted an application for nine replacement homes on a plot in the village.

Police confirmed that they had been alerted to two recent attempted burglaries in Beach Road.

One night last week Mrs Nierop-Reading was returning home when she heard someone tread on glass in the empty property beside hers. She headed back to the village to ring the police and said she saw someone leave the building and drive away.

“It isn’t at all pleasant. They need to get on with this demolition. They are empty, deteriorating and a security risk. It’s a bit like putting a sick animal to sleep – no-one wants to do it but you know it’s for the best,” she said.

“It will make it a bit colder up here for me, and less private, but it’s got to be done – it’s the worst of all possible worlds at the minute.”

A Midlands family have also refused to sell their two Beach Road holiday homes and the three remaining properties will leave a gap-toothed cliff-top line after demolition.

Campaigner Malcolm Kerby, of the Coastal Concern Action Group, said those who had decided to sell had received 40 to 50 per cent of their properties’ ‘no-problem’ market value out of NNDC’s £3m pot from the government’s pioneering Pathfinder scheme aimed at helping communities cope with erosion blight.

Although he believed central government should fully compensate householders for their loss, NNDC had “screwed as much out of the deal as possible for people,” based on current government policy which Mr Kerby said could be summarised as: “It’s your own fault for moving to the coast.”

He added: “What we’ve got is as good as it gets. I am very pleased with the outcome of the Pathfinder. I think when it’s complete later this year it will reset Happisburgh for the next quarter of a century in a very good way.”

Work on new Beach Road public toilets is due to begin “imminently” according to NNDC. The block will stand in a newly-built car park which replaces one nearer the cliff edge. The new facilities will be fully open at Easter and a picnic area will be ready soon afterwards.

Story by Alex Hurrell in the Eastern Daily Press

WALNEY residents whose homes are at risk of being washed into the sea have been snubbed by a government minister.

Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock has now pledged to sit down with residents and town hall officials to consider the options after Richard Benyon refused his request to meet a local delegation to discuss the issue.

Mr Woodcock said: “The problem of coastal erosion at Earnse Bay is of pressing concern.

“Bit-by-bit the coastline is crumbling into the sea and this is causing alarm among residents of the West Shore Park site.

“I wrote to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs minister Richard Benyon in November asking him to meet us.

“He has declined that invitation, which I find disappointing given the serious nature of this issue and I feel sure that residents of north Walney will be frustrated by his decision. I had hoped that the meeting would go some way towards putting people’s minds at ease and sorting out the problem, but we are back where we were.

“I will be contacting residents and borough council officials so we can talk about options – such as exploring new ways of securing funding to build better sea defences.”

In his letter to Mr Woodcock the minister said he had no direct influence on the choice of projects that are granted funding.

Over recent years tidal erosion has affected many parts of the Furness coastline, with the Earnse Bay foreshore problem being particularly acute. Barrow Borough Council is the authority responsible for coastal protection.

It has made a number of applications to the Environment Agency seeking support to tackle the Earnse Bay erosion issue, as yet without success.

A Defra spokesman said: “Defra has no direct influence on which coastal erosion projects are allocated funding.

“The Environment Agency, which takes these decisions, has offered to meet with John Woodcock at his earliest convenience.”

Story in the North West Evening Mail

Christmas may be over and done with but what about all the left over Christmas trees?

With 8 million Christmas trees sold in the UK every year that can be quite a waste if they’re not put to good use.

Instead of throwing your tree on the rubbish heap why not use it to help the environment?

Well, Hayley decided to do just that and took hers to Formby in Merseyside to see how it can be used to prevent coastal erosion.

Story on BBC Newsround

WORKS to protect 65 homes in West Wittering from flooding in the future are going ‘full steam ahead’, the Environment Agency has said.

Residents and the community in the Witterings managed to raise an incredible £150,000 to help pay for the defence works.

The homes will be protected by raising the current embankment on the shore with clay. Preparation construction works have started but will not be implemented on the beach until April when birds stop nesting there.

Andrew Gilham of the Environment Agency (EA) said: “We imported 10,000 tonnes of clay at the end of last year. We got it in early so we were ready to start works as soon as possible, once the birds have finished nesting. We expect them to leave the site in early April.

“It’s full steam ahead for the main construction works. Over the last couple of months we held public exhibitions showing the designs. Feedback has been used to help shape the final decision.”

Plans to improve the sea defences at West Wittering is part of the Pagham to East Head Coastal Defence Strategy. It was decided that 65 homes in West Wittering were at risk from flooding unless they were strengthened and improved. The works had to get permission from Chichester District Council and were supported by West Wittering Parish Council.

Story in the Chichester Observer

RESIDENTS can view information on how the coastline of the Lewes District is set to change during the next 20 years.

The district is part of a pioneering national pilot scheme to give the public online information on how the coast is changing.

A new set of web pages will provide information on how coastal erosion is expected to change the coastline in the next two decades.

The pages will also detail how the coast is being managed by the Environment Agency and the local authorities, as well as what coastal defences are in place.

The new system went live in November and reveals how the coastline area from Saltdean through Telscombe, Peacehaven, Newhaven, Seaford and along to Cuckmere Haven will alter over time.

All the information can be seen at the Environment Agency website.

Councillor Andy Smith, Cabinet Member for the Environment at Lewes District Council, said, “We are pleased that Sussex is a pilot for the national coastal erosion mapping project.

“This will give people living along the coast much better information on how the area is changing and on what we and our partners are doing to manage it.

“Having up-to date information also helps us in bidding for national funds to keep our coast defences in good condition.

“Where property and infrastructure might be at risk from erosion, it can help in getting work done to assess the options available for future management of the coast.

“We will then want to look at getting funds for implementing the preferred options.”

Story in the Eastbourne Herald

Steps leading down to the beaches around the Seven Sisters cliffs will be relocated because of coastal erosion.

Planning permission has been granted to allow Wealden District Council to build the new steps in the Birling Gap.

The Seven Sisters cliffs, from Seaford to Beachy Head, are a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and part of the South Downs National Park.

The new staircase will be built 3m (9.8ft) inland from its current position.

Johanna Howell, who is the cabinet member for community and the voluntary sector at the council, said: “The staircase, which provides the only access down to one of the most photographed locations in England, becomes more vulnerable as the cliff behind it is continually eroded.

“The staircase is designed to be periodically moved back to the cliff side as the rock face is washed away by the sea.

“With another season of winter storms on its way, we felt it was best to be prepared so that any necessary re-siting can be carried out as quickly as possible.”

The staircase was last moved in 2002.

Story on the BBC News website

A £400,000 scheme to protect a vulnerable stretch of Suffolk coastline has finished ahead of schedule.

The second phase of the project at Thorpeness involved nearly 2,000 fabric bags filled with sand and shingle being used to strength the defences.

The defences at the northern end of the village are being reconstructed and strengthened after damage caused by storms in June last year.

The work was made possible by a partnership involving Suffolk Coastal District Council, the Environment Agency and local residents.

Andy Smith, deputy leader of the council, said: “It is great that the £400,000 second phase scheme has completed its main and hugely important task of repairing and strengthening the damaged existing defences, so reducing the immediate threat to local homes from coastal erosion.

“Most of the funding is from the Government via the Environment Agency, with the remainder coming from this council and most importantly local residents, as without their £137,000 commitment the scheme would not have got financial backing from the Government.

A total of 1,856 bags were needed – 200 fewer than estimated – and the work, carried out by J Breheny Contractors Ltd, finished two weeks ahead of schedule. There will now be additional repair work to the gabions which could extend into February.

The work involved bags being laid eight to 10 layers deep on more than one-and-a-half square miles of geo-fabric, creating a 600ft toe-shaped structure that will provide vital support to the existing rock- filled wire basket revetment.

Charles Beardall, area manager for the Environment Agency, said: “We are delighted that this important scheme is progressing well. The local community are to be commended for the vital part that they have played in making this scheme possible.”

Because the area is still a
construction site, the fencing will have to remain up over the Christmas period and closed to public access.

Story by Jonathan Barnes on the Coastal Scene website

THE PIER extensions may in future be protected by rock armour as part of a new strategy to safeguard the Whitby coast.

Stewart Rowe, Scarborough Borough Council’s principal coastal officer, gave a presentation at a full meeting of Whitby Town Council (6 Dec) about work that is taking place to create a new coastal defence strategy.

In this presentation he suggested that to completely repair all of Whitby’s sea defences, including the harbour, would cost around £80m.

Mr Rowe said: “All the defences around the country were built around the same time by the Victorians in the 1840s.

“They’re therefore coming to the end of their lives, but there’s also potentially around 200 years of steadily increasing sea levels to battle against.

“Because the water’s getting deeper, the waves are getting bigger, which undercuts the promenades and causes more problems.”

The new defence plan will replace the first strategy, produced in 2002, and incorporates five kilometres of coastline between Sandsend and Abbey Cliff, as well as extending into the River Esk estuary up to the New Bridge.

During this presentation, Mr Rowe explained that although a number of options will be researched, rock armour may be installed in the next five to seven years to protect the pier extensions, although he did add: “rock armour would only be accepted if it was below water level”.

Rock armour, described by one councillor as “ugly”, protects the piers by breaking up wave action and reducing erosion.

It would also reduce the volume of waves breaching over the pier extensions, making them safer to pedestrians.

The A174 was highlighted as a major concern by the engineer, especially the area at Raithwaite Gap, and so if that road is to remain open – a much-maligned idea to relocate the road has long been muted – a large amount of erosion protection is required to safeguard the coastline.

Another major issue, thrown into context recently, is the flooding of areas in the centre of Whitby, with many expecting this to take place with increasing frequency as global sea levels rise.

The flooding which took place on 27 November was a freak storm surge caused by a number of different factors, but unless preventative measures are put into place, it is set to become a serious problem for residents of Church Street and New Quay Road.

“My job is to attract central government grants to fix these things,” said Mr Rowe.

“The problem in Whitby is it’s not a vast number of properties that flood.

“Although it’s a tragedy for the individual, we’re in competition with the rest of Yorkshire for funding.”

Whitby Coastal Strategy 2 is being produced by Scarborough Borough Council in collaboration with Whitby Town Council, Whitby Harbour Board, North Yorkshire County Council, the Environment Agency, and Natural England.

Story in the Whitby Gazette

Human rights will be breached if Great Yarmouth Borough Council fails to protect more than a dozen cliff-top homes and businesses from the ocean.

That is the view of Brian Hardisty whose Hopton home will be engulfed with 14 houses and two holiday companies if the Kelling to Lowestoft Ness Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) is approved.

His warning comes after plans revealed sea defences at Yarmouth and Gorleston would be maintained, while parts of Hopton would be allowed to fall into the sea.

It is a recommendation he believes breaches Article 14 (discrimination) of the Human Rights Act 1998.

The plans will see five seafront properties, Bourne Leisure and the Potters Leisure resort lost to the sea by 2055. Meanwhile, 15 properties will be lost by 2105.

But the borough council has made clear that nothing has been decided yet.

Mr Hardisty, 55, a Hopton parish councillor and chairman of Hopton Costal Action Group, said: “If they are going to hold the line in Gorleston, then why not in Hopton? It’s discrimination.

“If I had the financial backing then I would take the council to European Court of Human Rights for breaching the Article 14 (discrimination) of the Human Rights Act.

“The sea defences will be allowed to fail at Hopton because it is not financially viable to do anything about it. Yet, Hopton brings in revenue of £10m to the local economy each year, plus 1,000 jobs from holiday resorts.”

“That is reason enough to save it from going into the sea. The businesses and the properties of this village deserve a policy of hold the line and nothing else will do.”

The recommendations for Hopton is to allow the coast to retreat through a policy of managed realignment once the sea defences fail.

But during a Hopton Parish Council meeting on Monday night, council representatives and a coastal experts revealed the policy would be investigated through a £250,000 strategic review funded by DEFRA and the Environment Agency.

The 18-month strategy review will identify a programme of work to be carried out along the coastline as well as taking into account compensation for people who lose their homes.

Meanwhile, criticisms were aimed at Paul Patterson of Costal and Land Drainage Team during the meeting after claims erosion predictions had failed to identify the speed of Hopton’s erosion.

He said: “You mention the errors on erosion, but it is an estimate. There are so many things which can influence the speed of erosion. It was the best effort we could make but sometimes that is wrong. It is a clear example of the uncertainty we can face.

“We are not here to give you something to run kicking and screaming away from.

“I would like us to come together as a team to try and solve the problem of costal management.”

The Kelling to Lowestoft Ness Shoreline Management Plan is expected to go before the borough council in the near future.

Leader of the borough council, Steve Ames, said: “In order to attain approval for, or bid for funding to preserve the current coastal defences or to build more defences, we have to have an agreed Shoreline Management Plan in place.

“The plan does not dictate the strategy we are to specifically take for respective areas.

“That is to be done through the next phase of the Coastal Strategy review – which we are to produce in partnership with Waveney District Council.”

“It is the strategy that would take any decision around adapting to coastal change. No decisions have been take therefore – as the review of the Strategy has not been completed.

The results of HM Walligford study funded by Bourne Leisure, based in Hopton, into the impact of Yarmouth’s Outer Harbour on Hopton Beach is to revealed in the new year.

Story by Ben Woods in the Eastern Daily Press