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…)

Groups fighting plans to abandon coastal areas to the waves have resolved to work together to convince the government to drop the controversial proposals.

Councillors from across Suffolk and Norfolk coastal areas and from all levels of local government met for a conference in Southwold today. Also among more than 100 delegates were coastal pressure groups, Natural England, Suffolk Coastal MP John Gummer and Euro MP Geoffrey Van Orden.

They were united in wanting to stop the Environment Agency’s policy of “managed retreat”, or letting nature take its course as sea levels rise and coastal erosion continues. The conference focused on the Blyth estuary, one of the areas which will be most affected by the policy, but also heard of concerns elsewhere on the Suffolk coast and in Norfolk. Delegates decided that co-operation and communication were the key to persuading government to drop the plans and instead invest in flood defences. (more…)

A SENIOR Government minister has admitted plans to abandon sea and river defences along parts of the Suffolk coast might not go ahead unless the policy has the full support of people whose homes and businesses would be affected.

East of England minister Barbara Follett promised to take back to Whitehall the message that allowing the sea to flood hundreds of acres of the county, including the Blyth Estuary, would have a major impact on the character of the area of outstanding natural beauty, its wildlife habitats and the public’s access to them.

Mrs Follett joined leaders of Suffolk’s coastal local authorities and MP John Gummer to look at the £10million flood defence work being carried out at south Felixstowe and to hear concerns about the Environment Agency’s plans for the rest of the coastline. (more…)