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…)

THE senior official at the sharp end of protest over the Environment Agency’s plans to abandon some of the flood defences in Suffolk’s estuaries has moved to a new job overseeing the region’s response to the threat of inland and coastal flooding.

Dr Charles Beardall has moved from his job at Ipswich as the agency’s area manager, covering Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex, to become regional flood and coastal risk manager for the east of England, based in Peterborough.

It was also revealed yesterday that extra staff members are being drafted in to the agency’s Suffolk-based team to help deal with coastal issues, including engagement with a public which has proved hostile to plans for “managed retreat”. (more…)

LARGE numbers of homes and businesses on the Suffolk coast around Aldeburgh and Orford could be lost if the Environment Agency decides to abandon sea and river defences, campaigners have warned.

The Alde and Ore Association has issued a rallying cry to residents, businesses and tourists in the Aldeburgh and Orford area, warning the future of the land is under threat.

The Environment Agency is set to reveal its strategy for the area within the next six months - but the association fears it may follow the highly controversial proposals for the Blyth estuary.

There, the agency wants to stop repairing the flood walls which protect land and property around Blythburgh, Southwold, Reydon and Walberswick, because national funding is not available.

David Andren, Alde and Ore Association chairman, said: “Unless our coastal and river defences are maintained, hundreds of businesses in towns surrounding the Alde and Ore estuary will be put at risk.

“If there is a breach in the sea defences south of Slaughden this will almost certainly lead to breaches in our river defences, notably the walls protecting the Aldeburgh marshes.” (more…)

The effects of dredging off the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts on fishing and coastal erosion are to be examined by a major year-long scientific study.

The Anglian Offshore Dredging Association (AODA) is due to renew its licenses to extract sand from the seabed around the East Anglian coast within the next six years.

Now the association, which represents five of the UK’s largest dredging companies, is going to undertake a series of environmental studies over the next 12 months to look at the effects of dredging on the environment, including offshore wind farms, fishing, navigation and erosion. (more…)

The growing threat to Lowestoft’s coastal defences was laid bare last night after it emerged £2m must be found to carry out vital repairs along the main beach, while a nearby sea wall is in danger of collapse within weeks.

Sea defence managers are set to apply to the Environment Agency for the funding to carry out work on the town’s showpiece south beach, but have admitted defences at nearby Corton are falling apart and will have to be abandoned.

Meanwhile, a stretch of beach at North Denes has been closed where erosion has exposed the remnants of previous defences, which now pose a major danger to beach users.

With an annual sea defence budget of just £350,000, Waveney District Council is having to battle for national funding with coastal communities across the country. (more…)

ONE of Suffolk’s most vulnerable coastal communities should be safe from flooding for the next century following the completion of a £12 million sea defence project.

Residents of Felixstowe’s low-lying south area have lived with the worry of the waves for several years, the spectre of the tragic 1953 floods never far from mind.

Climate change raising sea levels and predictions of increasing numbers of storms and sea surges have added to the fears.

But now 70,000 tonnes of rock and 500,000 tonnes of sand and shingle should keep the area safe, as well as providing a new sandy shore to entice more visitors. (more…)

Plans to extend dredging off the East Anglian coast could accelerate coastal erosion and even endanger banks protecting Sizewell nuclear power station, it was claimed yesterday.

Concerned residents and coastal campaigners who attended a public meeting about the latest dredging proposals also voiced fears that gravel extraction was already decimating fishing stocks by destroying spawning grounds.

The newly-formed Anglian Offshore Dredging Association of dredging companies held a series of presentations at Yarmouth racecourse to outline its plans. (more…)

Villagers fighting to protect their land and homes from being lost to the sea were offered a glimmer of hope yesterday.

The Environment Agency’s Eastern Regional Flood Defence Committee (RFDC) met to discuss plans to abandon flood defences around the Blyth estuary in north Suffolk.

The Environment Agency (EA) wants to stop repairing the flood walls, which protect land and property around Blythburgh, Southwold, Reydon and Walberswick, because it says it cannot afford the £35m needed to maintain them.

The RFDC yesterday looked at submissions which have been received during the year-long consultation process and asked the EA to reconsider its strategy for the estuary. (more…)

From the Holy Trinity Church looming over the marshes at Blythburgh to a safe haven for rare birds, the banks of the Blyth estuary offer some of north Suffolk’s most peaceful countryside.

But the village landmarks, animals and farmland could soon be lost to the sea if campaigners are defeated and the Environment Agency’s (EA) proposals to stop maintaining the area’s flood defences are given the go-ahead. (more…)