AN innovative scheme to save a vulnerable stretch of coastline from the ravages of the sea is now complete – and just in the nick of time if this latest photograph is anything to go by.

Work to protect the cliffs, Martello Tower and two homes in East Lane, Bawdsey, near Woodbridge, has finally finished following years of uncertainty.

Campaigners feared the coastline would be swept away and large areas of low lying farmland would be flooded if nothing was done.

But the defence scheme was low on a list of national priorities and the Government said it could not pay for any work.

As result the East Lane Trust (ELT) was formed and the group came up with a ground breaking community project to raise the vital funds.

Suffolk Coastal District Council granted permission for 26 new homes to be built on land at Bawdsey, Alderton and Hollesley and those sites were then marketed to potential developers.

The money generated through their sale was used by the local authority – which had to break planning policy to allow houses on land normally safeguarded for development – to pay for the improvements.

The land at Bawdsey and Alderton has been sold and negotiations are still underway for the site at Hollesley.

But the project – which has cost in the region of £2.4million – is now complete, much to the delight of all those involved.

Gerry Matthews, developer of the East Lane Trust initiative, said: “I’m very pleased. I think the Martello Tower and one of the cottages would have to have been demolished so it’s very timely.

“It is the culmination of a lot of hard work and effort. The reality of the situation united the three parishes. We all worked hard to produce a local answer to the funding gap.”

John Fell-Clark, owner of the Martello Tower, said: “I’ve spent 12 years campaigning – it’s a great moment. Its terrific news and a culmination of a tremendous effort by everyone involved. It really has come just in the nick of time.

“It’s been a huge battle, not just in terms of funding but with all the other issues we’ve had to sort out as well. For example work should have started in October but the ship carrying the rocks sank.

“I’m ecstatic that after all these years the defences are complete. The tower and other properties are now safe for the foreseeable future.”

The scheme has been praised at a national level and Andy Smith, Suffolk Coastal cabinet member for coastal management, was recently invited in front of the House of Commons Select Committee.

“It was a very proactive and innovative approach to the planning side and got the job done,” he said. “There can have been few other examples of such close effective and productive joint working between the community and the statutory bodies.

“At a national level it’s been recognised as quite significant. It’s being looked at quite seriously as a way of getting things done in the future.”

Story by Criag Robinson in the East Anglian Daily Times

A vital £1million plus scheme to strengthen crumbling sea walls at Holland-on-Sea has been given the green light.

Tendring District Council (TDC) put forward a programme of works for the York Road area.

The project has now received the necessary funding clearance from the Environment Agency following a meeting last month and the aim is to start on site in September.

Planning permission for the scheme is already in place.

The total cost of the work is £1.139 million and it will be completed before the end of March 2010. It includes replacing the sea wall with a new concrete stepped defence to repel wave action and reduce erosion.

The whole initiative will use the successful process of repairs which were undertaken less than a mile away in the Hazlemere Road area of the town.

That scheme has now been completed and access to that area of the lower promenade was restored earlier this month.

Charlie Sambridge, Cabinet Member for Technical and Procurement Services at TDC, said he was delighted that the Environment Agency had approved the project at York Road.

“We now have confirmation that the work can go ahead and that the money is in place to do so,” he said.

“The aim is to get on with this scheme as soon as possible and we plan to start work on September 14.”

Cllr Sambridge said that the loss of beach material over the last two years has left the defences in danger of collapse in this section of the lower promenade.

Mark Johnson, Area Coastal Manager for the Environment Agency, said the Agency is really pleased to see further work going ahead at Holland-on-Sea.

“Together with the completed works at Hazlemere Road and Jaywick to the south, around £13 million will have been invested on coastal defences on the Tendring Peninsula since 2008,” he added.

The Council has already started to identify other areas where work will be needed in the near future.

The next critical section is from Cliff Road to York Road in Holland-on-Sea and the programme there will cost around £2million.

Following inspections along the coastline TDC is also earmarking a stretch of sea wall at Holland Haven, next to Gunfleet Boating Club, for attention in the near future.

Campaigners battling to save flood defences protecting land around a north Suffolk estuary are putting the finishing touches to plans which could see them repairing and rebuilding the walls themselves.

The Environment Agency announced in September 2007 that it could no longer justify large-scale investment to repair the defences around the Blyth Estuary, near Southwold, in the face of rising sea levels.

It proposed a strategy of managed retreat, which would see the existing walls protecting land around Walberswick, Southwold, Reydon and Blythburgh, maintained for a maximum of 20 years but with some sections allowed to breach much sooner.

Now the Blyth Estuary Group, which has been campaigning against the proposals ever since they were first put forward, is hoping to take on the task and rebuild the mud walls themselves so that they will last for at least a few more decades.

The proposals, being submitted to Suffolk Coastal District Council through Walberswick Parish Council, involve building an access track across the marsh using waste soil from building sites so that clay from the marshes can then be put in place to bolster the defences.

Blyth Estuary group member Richard Steward, who has been drawing up the plans, said that the scheme would see about thirteen and a half thousand truck loads of soil put in place over the next six years. The finished walls would be about 12m wide and stretch about 8km right round the estuary.

Mr Steward said: “It has taken us three years to get to this point and to really understand the processes at work in the estuary. We will build the wall so that it is the same height as the salting on the other side, near the river.

“We believe we can defend and protect these walls and we will do this with waste soil. The charges we get for disposing of the soil will help to fund the work. We will then use the marsh clay to build up the walls again.”

He added: “Men with spades have dug and protected not only the Blyth Estuary, but also the Deben, the Alde and large parts of the Broads, for hundreds of years.

“This will happen. We will defend the estuary. Every generation has to stand up and get on with the job in hand, that’s all we can do.”

Sue Allen, chairman of the Blyth Estuary Group, said: “It is nice to see things finally moving forward. This shows good community working as the local councils have put money forward to help pay for the application.”

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: “We have been working with the group very closely on this and giving them as much advice as we can. When the application is registered, we will then comment on it as we would consult on any other application.”

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