PROPOSALS to protect Lyme’s East Cliff have been approved by the Environment Agency – but project leaders remain cautious over securing multi-million-pound funding.

The agency has given technical approval to West Dorset District Council’s phase four works, a £21million scheme to protect roads, businesses, homes and utilities from coastal erosion.

It means the council can appoint consultants to produce detailed designs and carry out environmental mitigation work ahead of construction. The design and advance works are estimated to cost the authority in the region of £2million. (more…)

Plans to clear debris from the beach at Happisburgh have been approved and assurances have been 
offered about the possible impact it may have on the already occurring erosion.

The debris consists of the remains of old coastal defences, lost cliff-top structures and the old, now eroded lifeboat ramp.

Planning officers say that where possible, concrete remains will be incorporated into the existing rock defences. (more…)

Work to strengthen a seaside town’s flood defences is to get under way at a cost of £30m.

On Monday work will begin to knock down and replace Redcar’s sea wall which has been crumbling for years.

The Environment Agency said the new wall would stretch from Coatham to the Stray and was expected to combat coastal erosion for 100 years.

It will take two years to complete and will protect 1,000 homes and 200 businesses from flooding. (more…)

A major scheme to preserve The Naze in Walton is well under way with work set for completion by spring 2011.

Work on the £1.2m coastal erosion project began in November after locals campaigned for 25 years to save it.

More than 20,000 tonnes of granite rock has been shipped in which will be used for the access and viewing platforms.

“They are bang on target to get this thing up and running by the spring,” said Neil Stock, Tendring District Council leader. (more…)

Work on a £1.2m project to secure the future of The Naze in Walton has moved a step closer to commencing.

Builders J Breheny Contractors have been awarded the contract to create the ‘Crag Walk’ – a 110 metre long rock walkway along the crumbling cliffs.

Coastal erosion has threatened the Site of Special Scientific Interest and its iconic Naze Tower for decades.

Work to build the walkway and a new viewing platform is due to start in early 2011 and be completed by spring. (more…)

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. (more…)

From a press release on the Tendring District Council website:

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. (more…)

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. (more…)