Preparations have begun for the continuation of a multi-million pound project to reduce the risk of tidal flooding and maintain beaches on the Lincolnshire coast on the east coast of the UK.

The Environment Agency has set up the compound for its Lincshore beach re-nourishment project. Lincshore aims to combat the decrease in sand levels and increased risk of flooding caused by coastal erosion.

Dredging for Lincshore 2010 will begin in the middle of July and is expected to finish at the end of  September. It will see 400,000 cubic metres of sand pumped onto 20km of beach, including Trusthorpe, Boygrift, Trunch Lane, Chapel Six Marshes and Moggs Eye, at a cost of £6 million.

The mammoth scheme helps to prevent flooding on the Lincolnshire coast and maintains protection against a one in 200 year flood (0.5 per cent) for 30,000 properties and 35,000 hectares of land.

In addition, the work also helps maintain the beaches as tourist attractions – without it there would be little sand.

Mike Dugher, Environment Agency Area Coastal Manager, said: “Increasing the level of the beach reduces the risk of waves reaching the main defences and going over the seawalls. It protects the clay foreshore against further erosion and prevents rapid deterioration of the defences.

“If the defences along the beaches which rely on the Lincshore project failed, there could be extensive damage to property and distress and disruption among local communities. Tens of thousands of homes would be at severe risk of flooding, along with commercial and industrial properties. A number of important environmental sites would also be affected.

“During the works, there will be some unavoidable disruption to people in the area but we will make every effort to reduce this as much as possible. We hope they will understand the importance of carrying out this work to ensure properties and business along the Lincolnshire coast remain protected against tidal flooding and the area can look forward to a vibrant economic future.”

The Lincshore re-nourishment scheme began in 1994 and covers beaches from Mablethorpe to Skegness.

Each year, sand is dredged from licensed sites offshore and pumped onto beaches to replace material lost to erosion over winter.

The project is reviewed every five years to ensure it remains the best option for protecting homes and businesses from flooding. A review last year concluded it was and this year marks the start of another five-year programme which will see £30 million spent protecting the coastline.

Story on the Dredging News Online website

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

CONCERNED residents have urged coastal bosses to step in and save their homes from the ravages of the North Sea.

In the last two weeks large sections of the cliff behind properties in North End Avenue, Thorpeness, near Aldeburgh, have been washed away.

What was once a gentle shingle slope leading down to the beach has been replaced by a sheer drop of between 18 and 20ft.

The gabions – nets filled with rocks secured to the cliff face to help reduce the impact of coastal erosion – have also been exposed.

Bosses at Suffolk Coastal District Council have now stepped in and will be taking urgent action in a bid to prevent further losses to the cliff.

A total of seven homes are at risk – including that of Shelley and Mick Cowlin.

The couple have lived at their property for more than 30 years and are gravely concerned about the situation.

“The tide has been extremely high recently,” Mrs Cowlin said. “We could walk down to the beach before but now there is a drop. It has changed completely.

“It’s very frightening. We just want something to be done before it is too late. It won’t take too much longer before it has disappeared completely.”

Mrs Cowlin’s neighbours, John Green and his wife Sheila, who have had their property for nearly 20 years, are just as concerned about the recent developments.

“It has been quite dramatic,” Mr Green said. “You used to be able to walk down the steps from the garden and there was a gentle curve – now that has disappeared entirely.”

Mrs Green said she thought the changes had been caused by dredging out to sea, which has made the coastline more vulnerable to erosion.

“It’s not like we have had a terrible storm or anything like that,” she said. “It’s ridiculous. The sea bed has been interfered with. That, combined with high tides, has done it. It’s never been like this before.”

Their fears were expressed just days after former MP John Gummer warned communities may have to fund their own sea defences in the future because of the pressures of the financial crisis.

Last night a spokesman for Suffolk Coastal District Council said they would be taking urgent action early next week to put in place more wire baskets which should prevent any further erosion.

“The stretch of beach at Thorpeness has a network of what are basically wire baskets filled with rock to help coastal protection,” he said. “The stormy weather of two weekends ago removed about 4ft of sand from above these baskets and exposed them for the first time in anyone’s memory.

“The continuing northerly winds have led to another foot of the sand being removed and also meant that about 20ft of cliffs on the Aldeburgh side of the baskets was also lost.”

Mark Russell, director of the British Marine Aggregate Producers Association, which is responsible for dredging, said there were areas off the Suffolk coast where such activity was allowed.

However, he said the industry was governed by a strict set of regulations and if it was thought that it could lead to coastal erosion then it would not be permitted.

Story by Craig Robinson in the East Anglian Daily Times

More than 60 residents from the Holderness area packed into the SHoRes Centre on Friday evening to attend a public meeting organised by Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness.

They heard presentations from members of the marine aggregate industry, which is currently dredging nine miles from the coast, as well as marine environment expert Professor Mike Elliott.

Graham organised the event after some residents contacted him to say they feared the continued off-shore dredging is having a direct impact on the speed of erosion along the Holderness coast.

While both the dredging industry representatives and Prof Elliott said there was no evidence there was any correlation between the removal of sand and gravel from the seabed, both admitted more research could only be of assistance.

They said the deposits dredged from the North Sea are “fossil” deposits and once extracted they are not replaced by material from the coastal erosion.

Dr Andrew Bellamy, of United Marine Dredging, told the meeting the deposits brought up during the dredging process had been laid down during the last Ice Age around 20,000 years ago.

“This is not material and sediments from the coastal area,” he said.

Graham said: “We are all concerned by the impact of rising sea levels, global warming and the erosion of the coast, but we must make sure we understand the science before attributing blame.

“On the evidence I’ve seen so far it doesn’t look as though current dredging is having an impact on our coast. I would like to see more research on all the forces which are changing our coast, however, so we can have a better understanding of them and come up with measures better to protect people’s homes and businesses in a sustainable and affordable way.”

And he added: “I’m glad so many people came out on a Friday night to debate the subject and I want to make sure local knowledge and opinion is given greater weight as policy develops.”

***Off-shore of the Humber 482km2 of seabed is licensed for dredging. Dredging has actually taken place in 25km2 of that area producing 4.48 million tonnes of marine sand and gravel.

Story in the Beverley Guardian

An internet campaign to raise awareness of erosion problems at an Angus beach was launched yesterday.

Campaign group SOS (Save Our Sands) Montrose is calling for those concerned about the erosion of the town’s beach to put pressure on local politicians to demand urgent action.

The group believes sand dredged from the local harbour and its navigation channel has had a devastating effect on the beach.

It claims more than 1million tonnes of sand, swept by the tide into the harbour, has been removed from the local area over the past 25 years.

It has mainly been dumped out at sea, but in 2006 150,000 tonnes was shipped to Aberdeen beach as part of a £3.5million scheme to top up the city’s own dwindling sands.

A new film, posted yesterday on YouTube, has also been produced showing the effects of the erosion to date.

SOS Montrose spokesman Anthony Baxter, who made the film, said the only way to halt the process is to return the lost sand.

“Sand stripped from the local ecosystem has been dumped miles away, shipped up to save Aberdeen’s beach or simply dumped a few miles off Lunan Bay,” he said.

“It’s perhaps little wonder then that scientists blame this fact for the decimation of our own beach, and say the golf course and ultimately the town is at risk.”

Montrose Links Trust, which runs the golf course, installed its own rock armour three years ago to protect weak points on its coastal boundary and moved two tees inland.

The group’s view has been backed by Andrew Cooper, professor of coastal studies at Ulster University. “It would seem to me very unlikely it would have no impact,” he said. “That’s a very big volume of sand. In a situation like Montrose where we have this closed system, keeping the sand in the system is the best possible way to prevent long-term effects from taking place.”

The Scottish Government has already told Angus Council the beach does not qualify for government funding for heavy engineering work because it is not considered cost-effective.

The council said yesterday that a study of the erosion by Dundee University is due to begin over the next few weeks, following the recent appointment of a research officer. The results will be studied to decide the best way to manage the erosion.

Infrastructure services convener Councillor David May said: “The council and Montrose Port Authority are working to establish the best ways of managing the coastal erosion at Montrose. We hope that the Dundee University study, once completed, will help us in that goal.”

Story by Mark Dowie in the Press & Journal

Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, is inviting residents to learn about the possible impact of dredging for aggregates on coastal erosion at an information event and public meeting.

Graham organised the event, due to be held at the SHoRes Centre, Withernsea, on March 27, after some residents said they feared the continued off-shore dredging was having a direct impact on the speed of erosion along the Holderness coast.

While Graham will chair the meeting, it will also be attended by Mark Russell, director of British Marine Aggregate Producers Association; Dr Andrew Bellamy, United Marine Dredging; Robert Langman, Kimberley Bridge, Hanson Aggregates Marine; Graham Singleton, Joe Holcroft, John Miller – CEMEX Marine and David Harding of the British Marine Aggregates Producers Association.

Graham said: “I called this public meeting after a number of constituents raised concerns. This open day and public meeting will give residents the chance to see details about how the industry operates and then question that information for themselves.

“I hope anyone who is as concerned as myself about erosion will come along to the SHoRes Centre during the day and look at the information available before attending the public meeting in the evening. “

Story in the Beverley Guardian

CAMPAIGNERS aiming to protect Gower beaches are vowing to step up their fight against a building firm’s sand dredging plan.

Llanelli Sand Dredging is still hoping to get permission from the Assembly to dredge material off the coast of Swansea Bay. Concerned residents and local groups, who insist the process damages the region’s beaches, said they were gearing up for the release of key data on the environment.

Their cause has won the backing of Tory AM Alun Cairns, who is calling on more people in South West Wales to get on board with the campaign.

He said: “I remember a meeting when some researchers claimed the levels of sand on Gower beaches was increasing. If such claims are repeated, we need to be in a position to reject them immediately.

“If we aren’t going to scrutinise the data collected, then who is?”

Llanelli Sand Dredging currently collects sand from Nobel Banks, out in the Bristol Channel.

The firm, which employs around 15 people, sells the sand to the local building and construction companies.

However, it wants permission to take sand from the much larger Helwick Bank. It has a temporary licence to dig until August, but is not allowed to start work until data on sand levels is released. A date has yet to be confirmed. But campaigners, who blame past dredging for the erosion of local beaches, are fighting to stop that from happening. Around 30 people met in Port Eynon Village Hall on Monday night to discuss the matter further.

This included representatives from 10 Swansea community councils, the Gower Society and Save Our Sands. They want the community to get the chance to quiz environmental experts about their research.

Mr Cairns said: “It is up the Assembly and Swansea Council to make the information available in a readable form.” In the meantime, campaigners said they would press ministers at the Senedd to change policies on dredging.

Port Eynon mayor Linda Newland believed they had a strong case.

She said: “If they are dredging sand from Nobel, then why do they need to do it at Helwick as well?”

A spokesman for Llanelli Sand Dredging said: “Dredging (is) restricted to two or three short periods each year, which together total no more than about eight to 10 weeks. Dredging on the licence area only takes place for about two hours in each 24 hour period.”

Weblink: http://gowersos.keyframe.net

Story on the This is South Wales website

A FRESH call will be made for the Government to carry out an investigation into whether offshore dredging has contributed to large losses of land on the East Riding coast.

In the past year, unprecedented chunks of cliff measuring almost three times the length of a double-decker bus have disappeared into the sea.

East Riding Council wrote to the Government requesting an independent study into whether offshore dredging is a factor in the high rates of erosion.

However, officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) say a series of studies have already been carried out and no link was made between the erosion and dredging.

Monitoring of the region’s coastal erosion has shown 89ft (27m) sections of land have vanished to the north and south of Withernsea.

East Riding Council have invited new Environment Agency chairman, Lord Smith of Finsbury, to see first hand the effects of coastal erosion and to ask for a research study to be commissioned.

According to the latest figures, 4.48 million tons of aggregates were dredged from the Humber region in the past year. Dredging takes place in a number of areas, including sites near Easington and Spurn Point.

A Defra spokesman said: “All dredging applications are rigorously assessed for any adverse effects and for potential contribution to erosion. There is no evidence that authorised aggregate dredging has had any impact on the coast.”

Derek Crook lost his home in Seaside Lane, Tunstall, near Withernsea, to coastal erosion last year and now lives in a caravan yards from the cliff edge.

The 68-year-old said: “I do believe dredging has a big impact on coastal erosion. It is not allowed on the continent and it seems crackers we allow this to go on around our coast.

Story on This is Hull and East Riding website

The effects of dredging off the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts on fishing and coastal erosion are to be examined by a major year-long scientific study.

The Anglian Offshore Dredging Association (AODA) is due to renew its licenses to extract sand from the seabed around the East Anglian coast within the next six years.

Now the association, which represents five of the UK’s largest dredging companies, is going to undertake a series of environmental studies over the next 12 months to look at the effects of dredging on the environment, including offshore wind farms, fishing, navigation and erosion.

Currently 14 licences are being dredged between Caister and Lowestoft, from four miles out to about 20 miles offshore, providing about eight million tonnes of raw construction material every year.

Some of the existing sites have been dredged for nearly 40 years, and AODA is currently considering applying to extract material from a new site out to sea near Southwold, but the results of the environmental study will be examined before any decision about the new site is made.

Opponents have said that if a licence is granted by the Crown Estate for the new site off Southwold, the dredging area could be increased tenfold and have significant effects on the area’s coastline, but AODA claims that only a few zones within the area would be used at any time.

The study is supported by the Marine and Fisheries Agency but some local fishermen have raised concerns that the new scoping area off Southwold includes spawning grounds for skate and sole.

Robert Langman, AODA’s coordinator, said that the environment impact assessment for the East Anglian coastline has just started. He said: “Although each individual environmental impact assessment has considered all the regional impacts in the past, this is the first time the potential impacts of offshore dredging and the cumulative impacts it may have with other sea users have been studied at a regional level in this area.

“We hope our pro-active approach will help manage this workload for the regulator, its advisors, stakeholders and the industry and will ensure that all issues are addressed in a robust manner.”

Story by Hayley Mace in the Eastern Daily Press

FEARS have been raised that a sea wall and even a road could collapse because of dredging work being carried out.

Don Barker, of Harbour Crescent, Harwich, used to work as a coastal protection worker for Tendring Council. About 20 years ago he helped remove roughly a 400-yard stretch of groynes between the end of Barrack Lane, Dovercourt, and a ramp on Harwich beach. The area was due to be regroyned and recharged with sand, but Mr Barker said this never happened. Now he fears if something is not done, the road he lives in could fall victim to the sea.

He said: “Up until now we have lost about 4ft of sand and infill, and the footings of the wall are being undercut.

“The beach is just going. Because of the dredging at Felixstowe, all the soft stuff is being dragged over there and Harwich beach is getting lower and lower.

“One day the wall will collapse. It might not be in my lifetime but that wall will collapse.

“Right behind the promenade is Harbour Crescent.

“If the sea wall goes, the promenade and then the road will go, but no-one seems to want to do anything about it,” he added.

“Simple solution – regroyne the area and recharge the beach,” he said.

Nigel Brown, Tendring Council’s communications manager, said the council carried out work to stabilise those particular defences opposite Harbour Crescent about two years ago.

“The council continues to monitor the structures regularly, as it does elsewhere along the Tendring coastline,” he said.

“A great deal of money has been spent in Harwich reinforcing the sea defences and this particular site is not a priority concern at this time.

“There are other areas of the district’s sea defences which are currently in greater need of attention, and efforts are being made to secure the funding needed to carry out this work.”

Story by Andrea Collitt in the Gazette