Findings from a Manhood Going Dutch II workshop will be presented at a public community event on Tuesday.
The workshop, to be run by the Manhood Peninsula Partnership from Sunday to Tuesday, is designed to bring international experts and local people together to look at ways of dealing with local coastal defence issues.
It is scheduled to coincide with the consultation period for the draft coastal defence strategy prepared by the Environment Agency and Chichester and Arun District Councils.
Partnership chairman Cllr Peter Jones said the community was invited to make suggestions on how to manage the coastline, and numerous responses had been received.
“These suggestions, along with the options stated in the draft strategy, will be assessed by our Dutch and British delegates over three days,” he added.
“The experts’ findings will be presented at Earnley Concourse on June 24, and the Manhood community are invited to attend to hear what our delegates have concluded. It looks to be an interesting and important event.”
Spaces for the final presentation are limited and entrance to the event will be by ticket only.
Story in the Chichester Observer
Protecting Medmerry’s sea defences would be only ‘fighting against nature’.
That is the verdict of James Humphrys, Solent and South Downs area manager for the Environment Agency (EA), on the crumbling sea defences for the area in Selsey.
The EA announced its proposals to move the sea defence boundaries at Medmerry and carry out controlled flooding for the area over the next century.
The Pagham to East Head draft coastal defence strategy was announced on May 29 and in it the EA proposed to sustain Selsey’s sea defences.
“We all feel a deep wish to provide total protection for everybody all the time,” said Mr Humphrys.
“The reality is we can’t do that. We have a limited amount of money.”
The coast is divided into different stretches because of the different states and populations of each area.
The EA said it was in talks with Bunn Leisure about how they could both work together to find a solution for protecting Medmerry and the holiday park.
Mr Humphrys said: “In some parts of the peninsula it is actually fighting against nature and that’s not something we can continue to do. With Medmerry there is a lot of low-lying land with a very low population density. We will make arrangements with landowners about our proposals.”
Story in the Chichester Observer
The Environment Agency, in partnership with Chichester and Arun District Councils, has developed adraft coastal defence strategy for the West Sussex coastline between Pagham Harbour and West Wittering. Between 29 May 2008 and 29 August 2008 they are inviting comments on their recommendations for managing flood and erosion risk over the next 100 years.
The draft strategy recommends that the vast majority of properties should be protected to their current standard or better, while recognising that securing funding for building and maintaining defences is a serious and pressing issue for the area.
Save Our Selsey are concerned about the funding for the policy of ‘hold the line’ in the Selsey area, and are not convinced that ‘managed realignment’ is the best policy in the Medmerry area.
The consultation period is open for 12 weeks - it’s crucial that anyone with an interest in the future of the coastline in this area makes their feelings known.
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