Lord Smith of Finsbury’s comments have also been picked up by the Daily Mail who quote from the Independent article:

While promising to do his ‘level best’ to fund engineering solutions to the problem, Lord Smith warned that all coastal areas could not be saved.

He said: ‘We are almost certainly not going to be able to defend absolutely every bit of coast - it would simply be an impossible task both in financial terms and engineering terms.’

The agency, working with ministers, would have to identify ‘priority areas’ to defend, he said.

Lord Smith suggested that parts of north-east Norfolk and Suffolk faced the greatest threat, according to research by the Agency which will be released in 2009.

In an interview with The Independent, he went on: ‘We will publish next year details of the work that’s been done, where we think the particular threats are, where we think there is current defence in place.

‘We will begin to talk with communities where we think defence is not a viable option.’

He also warned that ministers could no longer rely on insurance companies to cover families who lost their homes , suggesting they would have to be rehoused at the taxpayer’s expense.

His comments will embarrass the government, which in May this year was forced to deny that areas of the Norfolk coastline would be surrendered.

Flooding Minister Phil Woolas said there was ‘no question’ of abandoning seaside villages from Eccles to Winterton if sea levels rise.

Read the full story by Tamara Cohen in the Daily Mail

The story is also picked up in the Guardian, and the Eastern Daily Press

In the Telegraph, Jon Swaine added comments from former Environment Minister, and MP for Suffolk Coastal John Gummer:

Mr Gummer, who has set up Suffolk Coast Against Retreat, a group campaigning for the preservation of vulnerable areas, said: “Chris Smith’s wide ranging speech must be taken seriously. The Government must listen to the concerns of the people of Suffolk and the rest of the East Coast. We want managed defence, not managed retreat. This must not be the first government in history to abandon Britain to the sea.

“Coastal erosion is perhaps the most serious issue that faces the Suffolk Coastal Constituency. We have 74 miles of coastline and all of it is vulnerable.”

As the world’s top golfers battle it out for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, the oldest links course in England - the 144-year-old Royal North Devon at Westward Ho! - is engaged in a fight for survival.

The course, home to the oldest ladies’ golf club in the world and renowned for its association with golfing great John Henry Taylor - who won the Open five times between 1894 and 1913 and went on to design Royal Birkdale - is crumbling into the sea.

And campaigners trying to save it are furious that Natural England, the government agency responsible for coastline management, have stopped sea defences protecting the course being repaired as part of their policy of managed retreat. (more…)

Mrs Beeby and I are standing amid a sea of pansies, sweet peas, sunflowers and half a dozen gnomes in her immaculate back garden. Above, gulls are squawking. Below, waves are crashing on to the sandy beach and the wind is whistling in our ears.

‘Just look - it’s a beautiful view, don’t you think?’ she says, leaning over the fence and pointing at the North Sea, grey and glinting behind a few yards of meadow.

‘I remember when we first moved here - we’d hang over the fence and say: “Wouldn’t it be nice if all those bungalows weren’t in the way so we had a clear view of the sea…”

‘Well, be careful what you wish for. There’s one fence pole left, then a little bit of meadow, then us. Everything else has fallen in. The first thing I do each morning is look at the view - but more to see what’s gone than what’s still there.’ (more…)