The waves have washed away the shingle which covered the gabions

Homeowners living on the cliff top at Thorpeness are questioning whether dredging is to blame.

Shingle has been washed away at North End Avenue exposing the gabions (wire baskets filled with rocks) which protect the sandy cliff.

“It’s very, very frightening,” said Sheila Green, who lives there.

The British Marine Aggregate Producers Association said there’s no connection between dredging at sea and the erosion on the beach.

“On a bad night it’s quite frightening to lie in bed and hear those big waves crashing into the beach,” said John Green, Sheila’s husband.

“It’s a great shame, because it’s a beautiful spot. You get up in the morning and at 5 o’clock the sun’s rising and everything is pink and you’re in heaven.”

The gabions were laid at the bottom of the cliff in the mid-1970s and were covered in shingle.

Until now, the stakes in front of the bottom row of gabions had never been exposed.

Heavy storms at the start of May 2010 swept away any remaining shingle and a 20 foot section of cliff was eroded to the south of the gabions.

“When you’ve got a high tide it would come up to the bottom of our steps here. When you’re lying in bed, you can hear that the sea is nearer,” said Sheila.

John and Sheila Green in their cliff top back garden

Dredging at sea

Dredging takes place at grounds all along the East Anglian coast – consisting of fossil deposits which have filled in old river channels formed in the Ice Age.

One of the largest current projects is providing the aggregate for the £300m expansion project at the Port of Felixstowe.

“Okay, if this [erosion] is an act of God, then you’ve got to accept it,” said Sheila. “But I want to know about that dredging.

“They were extensively dredging last year and it seems that they’re getting nearer.

“If they’ve done something like that that’s interfered with our property, then we’re not very pleased and we want to get to the bottom of it.”

The British Marine Aggregates Producers Association (BMAPA) denies there’s any connection between shifting shingle and dredging.

“If there’s any doubt that the extraction was causing an impact on the coastline, the dredging would simply not be permitted,” said Mark Russell, director of BMAPA.

“The near shore movement of shingle is dominated by waves. Off-shore it’s dominated by tidal flows which run parallel to the coast, not against it.”

He said the nearest grounds are 30.5km from Thorpeness and the depth of dredging would only ever be 2-5m.

BMAPA says the industry is regulated by the Marine Management Organisation which answers to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Suffolk Coastal District Council has put up warning signs about the gabions

Future protection

Suffolk Coastal District Council says it is consulted on any dredging work, but it has no powers or control over it.

However, they are carrying out around £10,000 of work to shore-up the existing gabions at Thorpeness and to protect the section of cliff that’s just been eroded.

“When the gabions were [originally] done, people did give money,” said Sheila. “I think it was about £1000 each for these seven houses.

“So whether that will come in again? But we would hope the council will do the best part.”

Sheila’s house isn’t under immediate threat.

“No, and I don’t think it will be for quite a while, but we just want to keep the sea back a bit so that it doesn’t come to that!”

Story by Andrew Woodger on the BBC News website

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to protect the county’s coastline from the ravages of the sea said last night that plans to vastly increase the dredging zone off Southwold could dramatically “speed up” erosion.

Marine aggregate companies want to dredge an area of seabed off the coast which campaigners claim would be 10 times the size of the current dredging zone being worked.
Environmental pressure group Marinet, which is part of Friends of the Earth, has warned a consortium of marine aggregate companies is considering increasing the current area used for dredging.

The newly-formed Anglian Offshore Dredging Association (AODA) has put the new area forward for discussion and is to hold a public information day on the proposals.

Marinet said AODA had not yet applied for a licence to dredge the new area but it had carried out a marine aggregate regional environmental assessment and an application was expected shortly.

Pat Gowen, of Marinet and the North Sea Action Group, said: “This new area would be much nearer to the shoreline and much more localised damage would be caused to the area around Southwold much quicker than in the past.

“Dredging causes larger waves and speeds up erosion along our coast.”

He added that dredging makes the seabed steeper and weakens offshore sandbanks which otherwise would break up large waves.

Coastal protection campaigner Peter Boggis, who has built his own sea defences at Easton Bavents, near Southwold, said: “The affects of dredging are not clearly understood and the Government should adopt a precautionary principle and be sure the coast is properly protected before allowing any further dredging to take place.

“It has been noted in Easton Bavents and Southwold that dredging has increased erosion in the area.”

No-one from AODA or for the British Marine Aggregate Producers’ Association (BMAPA), which represents most of the companies involved in offshore dredging, were available to comment yesterday .

But a statement on the BMAPA website said that “by providing essential resources to replenish beaches, marine aggregates are a solution to coastal erosion rather than the cause of it. Such erosion is a natural process, driven by waves and currents that affect both beaches and cliffs.”

It added: “One of the industry’s key objectives is to ensure that dredging does not affect such processes; for example by changing the wave climate or interfering with seabed sediment transport. Before permission to dredge is granted, careful analysis of waves and currents in the area is undertaken using hydrodynamic models.

“Permission would not be given if the experts felt there was the slightest threat. As a further safety mechanism, monitoring of the seabed, and adjacent coast in sensitive areas, is also undertaken while dredging is carried out.”

AODA is holding a public information day at the Vice Admiral Bar at Great Yarmouth Racecourse on September 26, with three 20 minute presentation sessions at 3pm, 5pm and 7pm.

Marinet has asked the National Audit Office to investigate whether it is cost-effective to dredge sand and gravel for sea defences when the dredging itself may be contributing to erosion.

Marine dredging is a major source of government income, raising millions every year in licences because the land is part of the Crown Estate – and millions more in VAT when the aggregate is sold. About 25million tonnes of sand and gravel are taken from the sea bed around England and Wales each year.

The material is used mostly for buildings and roads, but some goes to repair sea defences and replace sand washed away from beaches.

Story in the East Anglian Daily Times