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.

He said: “Up until now we have lost about 4ft of sand and infill, and the footings of the wall are being undercut.

“The beach is just going. Because of the dredging at Felixstowe, all the soft stuff is being dragged over there and Harwich beach is getting lower and lower.

“One day the wall will collapse. It might not be in my lifetime but that wall will collapse.

“Right behind the promenade is Harbour Crescent.

“If the sea wall goes, the promenade and then the road will go, but no-one seems to want to do anything about it,” he added.

“Simple solution – regroyne the area and recharge the beach,” he said.

Nigel Brown, Tendring Council’s communications manager, said the council carried out work to stabilise those particular defences opposite Harbour Crescent about two years ago.

“The council continues to monitor the structures regularly, as it does elsewhere along the Tendring coastline,” he said.

“A great deal of money has been spent in Harwich reinforcing the sea defences and this particular site is not a priority concern at this time.

“There are other areas of the district’s sea defences which are currently in greater need of attention, and efforts are being made to secure the funding needed to carry out this work.”

Story by Andrea Collitt in the Gazette

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.

The plan to seek £2m for work on the south beach, opposite Royal Green, was hatched because of the huge number of tourists it attracts and the number of businesses based there.

The council wants to carry out repairs to the foundations of the flint sea wall, built more than 100 years ago, and construct new groynes to help improve beach levels, which have been dramatically reduced in recent years.

However, just a few miles along the coast at Corton, council officers are preparing to put up barriers to stop people walking on the southern section of sea wall that runs northwards towards Hopton because erosion could see it collapse as soon as this winter.

The neighbouring timber breastwork, which protects the cliffs from Corton village to the Broadland Sands Holiday Park, is also falling apart and the decision has been taken not to invest any more in its maintenance.

Paul Patterson, who is in charge of sea defences in Waveney, said: “The northern part of Lowestoft south beach is suffering scour that has reduced the amenity value of the area and also placed at risk ageing defences that protect the promenade and tourist facilities from erosion.”

Work to improve the most vulnerable section of the wall took place last winter and a study is being carried out in preparation for the major project, which is scheduled to take place during the winter of 2009/10.

While the Kelling to Lowestoft Ness Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) says the defences along the south beach and North Denes should be maintained, it says there is no economic justification to carry on work at Corton.

Mr Patterson added: “The most significant erosion pressure is being felt from Lowestoft Ness northwards to the county boundary north of Corton village.”

The new barriers on the sea wall will have gates to allow public access to the wall until officers decide it is too dangerous.

Last year, the EDP reported how villagers in Corton felt abandoned by the SMP, which says new defences completed in 2005 at a cost of £3.5m will not be replaced when they reach the end of their lifespan in 20 to 30 years. Forecasts showed that 40 buildings could be lost on the seaward side of Corton Road and The Street by 2055 and, by 2105, a further 60 properties could be claimed by the sea.

While the state of some defences in Corton is critical, Waveney District Council is promoting a joint study with Great Yarmouth Borough Council to explore opportunities to manage crumbling defences.

Ken Sale, the council’s portfolio holder for the environment, said: “Tourism is the lifeblood of Waveney and Lowestoft beach is one of the best. As politicians all we can do is carry on lobbying the government to get more funding, but you can’t just put a concrete wall around the whole of the country.”

Story by Alasdair McGregor in the Eastern Daily Press

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.

To mark the completion of the project, a plaque on a large piece of rock was unveiled at the top of Orford Road by Jim Bidwell, chairman of Suffolk Coastal council, and Tony Coe, chairman of the regional flood defence group.

Mr Bidwell said the new defences - 21 fish-tail rock groynes - had transformed the beach, which had previously featured dilapidated century-old concrete breakwaters, severe erosion, and a shored-up prom.

“This new beach is now a major benefit to the town, visitors and local businesses,” he said.

“We expect to see a lot more people along this stretch of the prom enjoying this wonderful beach.

“These defences will ensure the wellbeing of residents and the general wellbeing of Felixstowe over the next 100 years and will protect nearly 1,000 homes, 500 businesses and the town’s major employer, the port.”

Mr Coe, who lives in Felixstowe, praised the team work which had brought together a variety of bodies to plan, secure the finance and build the defences.

“This is a scheme that has not been without its problems, not least of which was obtaining the necessary funding to progress it. The outcome is one that will bring benefits to residents and visitors to Felixstowe alike,” he said.

The Environment Agency managed and paid for the project, working in partnership with Suffolk Coastal council, design consultants, and contractors Team Van Oord, who had several challenges to overcome during construction.

Bert Groenewoud , of the contractors, said: “The team had to cope with the discovery of a 500kg bomb on the beach and having the Royal Navy lose it.

“During that time, the delivery of rock shipments from France had to be changed as the exclusion zones were moved and the rock barge had to anchor at a number of different locations off the coast for a while.”

Story by Richard Cornwell in the East Anglian Daily Times

FARMERS and householders are today being urged to wake up to controversial plans that could lead to their properties being swamped with floodwater.

Objectors say it is not only East Yorkshire cliff-edge cottages that are threatened by the Environment Agency’s proposed abandonment of centuries-old coastal defences.

The Humber Flood Risk Management Strategy, coupled with a likely rise in sea levels, will mean thousands of acres of farmland and will be flooded regularly by the sea within 40 years.

Holderness is the main area that will be affected by the strategy, but objectors fear not all farmers and householders are aware of the massive threat to their properties.

Fears about future flooding are threatening to put a blight on land and property values either side of the A1033 and B1445 roads from Hull to Withernsea and Spurn Point.

Now, two meetings are being organised to alert farmers and residents to the massive impact the strategy could have on East Yorkshire.

The first has been called by the Holderness National Farmers’ Union (NFU) for its members and the second is a public meeting to which everyone is invited.

Farmer Andrew Cook, Holderness NFU branch chairman, said: “This a huge issue for the area and it is vital everyone is aware of what is going on and the potential threats.

“We are aware some farmers and a lot of the general public are unclear about what is at stake and how we, as a rural community, might be affected.

“While a significant amount of farmland will be affected, there will also be a huge impact on the residents of East Yorkshire.”

Under the agency’s plans for East Yorkshire, 28,000 acres of farmland and up to 1,000 homes could be left unprotected from rising sea levels.

Mr Cook, of Kenby Farm, Owstwick, near Roos, said: “It is a worrying situation for a lot of people and we need to get it sorted.

“The Dutch manage to cope with such situations on a much larger scale, so the threat to our coastal defences is not unsolvable.”

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart will be addressing the farmers’ meeting and has also called the public meeting.

He said: “If the strategy is carried out, it will be devastating for Holderness and it is vital everybody knows what is at stake.

“We have estimated £330m of land and property is at risk from the strategy, but the cost of protecting existing defences would be £30m over the next 25 years.

“Regardless of the complex formulas the Government uses to reach its figures, the proposals don’t make a lot of sense.”

The NFU meeting will be held at the Gardeners Arms in Coniston, near Hull, tomorrow at 6.30pm, and the public meeting will be held in Hedon Town Hall on Wednesday, October 29, at 6.30pm.

Story in the Hull Daily Mail

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.

Representatives of the association explained how it was embarking on an environmental assessment of a wide area of East Anglian coastal waters as the first stage in applying for the renewal of existing dredging licences and for new ones to extend the area of dredging activity.

Dr Andrew Bellamy, scotched the idea that dredging could accelerate coastal erosion, insisting it was carried out too far out to sea and in too deep water to have any effect.

But prospective Green MEP Rupert Read said he felt further dredging represented “a dire risk to further damaging our fragile coastline”.

Pat Gowen, a spokesman for the local coastal protection group Marinet, said proposed new dredging near Sizewell could pose a serious danger to the power station if the banks protecting it were eroded.

Story in the Lowestoft Journal

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.

Anthony Coe, RFDC chairman, said: “The EA has taken the consultation responses to the strategy extremely seriously and has put in a lot of work to alter the strategy where possible to take account of them.

“But the committee has asked the EA to have another look at the strategy to take better account of the work being done in partnership on the Suffolk Shoreline Management Plan and a study looking in detail at Southwold harbour.”

Speaking after the meeting, Guy McGregor, county councillor and chairman of the Blyth Strategy Group, said: “This was a very positive outcome - at its very first public airing these proposals fell at the first hurdle. I believe the committee understood that this strategy does not have the backing of local people.”

Sue Allen, chairman of the Blyth Estuary Group, said that Waveney District Council is planning to continue work with MEP Geoffrey Van Orden to secure European funding for the defences and work around Southwold harbour.

Charles Beardall, the EA’s eastern region manager, said: “It would be easy to say that the committee did not support the strategy, but that is not really the case. We will now take on board the committee’s recommendations.”

Aspects of the strategy will be reviewed by the EA and then go through an internal approval process, which could take 12 months.

A strategy for the estuary will then be formally adopted and reviewed again after five years.

The RFDC also welcomed Suffolk County Council’s bid for funding from the Highways Agency to raise the A12 and asked the EA to continue to support the council to help the bid to be successful.

Story in the Lowestoft Journal

YORKSHIRE has yet to wake up to the threat of the Humber Flood Risk Strategy, according to National Farmers’ Union secretary for Holderness Ed Davey.

He says farmers need to realise that it is not only cliff-edge cottages which are threatened by the Environment Agency’s proposed abandonment of coastal defences.

The strategy, combined with the likely rise in sea level, will mean thousands of hectares of farmland being flooded by the sea on a regular basis within 40 years – and many more could be hit by knock-on effects.

“One fifteenth of the whole UK land mass – 100,000 hectares – drains into the Humber ” he said this week, as he urged NFU members to attend a meeting next week.

The redrawing of the Environment Agency’s frontier of responsibility threatened to knock out several drainage systems which depend on “clough gates” into the mouth of the river, he added.

The uncertainty threatened a blight on land and property values either side of the A1033, between Hull and Withernsea, and in a similar swathe along the south bank.

He said: “It is still unclear to the general public what is at stake and how we as a rural community might be affected.

“While a significant amount of farmland will be affected, there will also be a huge impact on the residents of East Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire.”

The Yorkshire Post reported earlier this year that Government’s calculations of profits and losses from withdrawal from the existing coastline had failed to take account of potential crop losses of £70m from 210 square miles of land directly threatened.

The meeting will be held at the Gardeners Country Inn – also known as the Gardeners Arms – at Coniston, near Hull, next Thursday, from 6.30pm.

Humber Strategies Manager for the Environment Agency Philip Winn and MP for Beverley and Holderness Graham Stuart will be there, with Mr Davey.

The same three speakers will lead a public meeting on Wednesday, October 29 at Hedon Town Hall, from 6.30pm, along with deputy leader of East Riding Council Jonathan Owen.

Story by Chris Benfield in the Yorkshire Post

A new harbour could be created on the county’s coastline as part of a new coastal defence strategy.

It would be similar to wildlife-rich Pagham Harbour, a designated local nature reserve, just a few miles away, and the county maintains it would have a ‘positive impact’ for generations to come – according to West Sussex County Council.

But the authority’s comments, made in response to a new Pagham to East Head coastal strategy, come with a warning about concerns over national funding mechanisms for coastal defence, which could cause problems over such a project.

In a letter to the Environment Agency, Cllr Deborah Urquhart, county cabinet member for the environment and economy, said the need to realign defences at Medmerry, Selsey, to a more stable position inland was becoming better understood by the community. Such a policy would result in a major new landscape feature in the form of a new harbour similar in nature to Pagham.

“But despite the engagement and visioning work done by the community over the years, including the Going Dutch conferences, it would appear the indicative alignments of the new defences are based around ensuring the cheapest and shortest new structures to achieve the highest cost-benefit ratio,” said Cllr Urquhart.

A new harbour had the potential to have a very positive impact on the area for generations to come.

But for the residents and businesses of the area to adopt the dramatic changes to their landscape and community that now seemed necessary, it was essential they were involved in shaping a vision for how their area would look and could be used, and how such a feature would be integrated into their landscape and fit alongside their existing facilities and infrastructure.

“Although the panel of experts agreed with the need to realign the defence inland at Medmerry, many of the workshops expressed concern about the engineered structures being imposed on the landscape, and not working with the contours and existing features,” she added.

Alongside other members of the community and geo-morphologists and engineers, the county council would be keen to offer its landscape and heritage expertise to ensure the design of the new feature took full account of the character of the Manhood Peninsula.

The county would also expect to be engaged to identify and design the most appropriate locations for new and relocated rights of way, to maximise the benefits to the community of new routes and, where feasible, ensuring access for all.

Story in the Chichester Observer

A plan to determine the best way to look after the coastline from Great Orme’s Head to Solway Firth in a sustainable way for the next 100 years has been opened for public consultation.

The North West England and North Wales Coastal Group are currently preparing a revised Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) for the coast between Great Orme’s Head and the Scottish Border.

They have opened a website to enable the public to participate in the various phases of public consultation.

“It is essential that the revised plan adequately deals with the issues and concerns of the communities, businesses and organisations which have an interest in this part of the coast and that the Coastal Group base their work on the best information available to them,” says the group.

“For these reasons it is important that consultation takes account of your views.”

Those interested can take part in the consultation online at the link below

Posted on the News Wales website

For more information on the Shoreline Management Plan Consultation visit the North West & North Wales Coastline website

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.Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s hen reed bed reserve, which runs along the north bank of the estuary, is home to the reed and sedge warbler, otter and water vole and at low tide, waders such as the redshank, avocet and sandpiper can be seen searching for food, but more than 40 acres of the marsh could be lost if the estuary breaks its banks.

The agency announced a year ago that it planned to stop repairing the walls which protect thousands of acres of land, roads and homes around the Southwold, Walberswick, Reydon and Blythburgh areas because it could not afford the £35m needed to repair them.

Now, despite a lengthy period of public consultation, the EA’s eastern regional flood defence committee is expected to announce on Friday that the flood walls will be abandoned over the next two decades.

The hen reed bed is an important wildlife habitat, supporting three pairs of marsh harrier, nesting bittern and a herd of konik Polish ponies, as well as rare wetland plants like the skull-cap and lesser water parsnip.

Alan Miller, Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s north Suffolk manager, said that up to 45 acres of the hen reed bed reserve could be lost if the flood walls are not maintained.
He said: “This is a very important nature habitat. The wall has recently been repaired to fill in the breaches caused by the floods last November, but we only have a guarantee for five more years of maintenance - after that we don’t know what will happen.”

Flooding will also pose a risk to the Holy Trinity Church - known as the cathedral of the marshes - and Southwold harbour, where the estuary meets the North Sea.

Mr Miller said: “The water from here flows with the tide through Southwold harbour and if there is more water in the estuary in the future, then it will flow faster and wear away the harbour walls.

“The defences are all interdependent - any wall is only as strong as its weakest point because once it is breached, the water flowing out will take material with it and weaken it further. Maintenance needs to be all or nothing,” he said.

Story by Haley Mace in the Eastern Daily Press