On the Coastal Concern Action Group website comes a report of a busy week, with meetings of a North Norfolk contingent at the Environment Agency, a DEFRA workshop in Reading discussing adaptation measures, and finally a fact finding trip to Holland organised by CoastNet on behalf of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coastal and Marine Issues.
Coastal campaigners from Norfolk have had an “encouraging” meeting with the man in charge of the nation’s flood defences.
A group of politicians, councillors from the north and east coasts and residents of seaside and low-lying Broads villages met Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith yesterday.
Afterwards an upbeat North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said he was very encouraged by the comments they heard. (more…)
QUEENS Drive could be ‘moved’ back to combat coastal erosion and rising sea levels - giving a bigger and better Exmouth beach.
In a possible glimpse of the future, scientists and engineers this week presented suggestions to tackle the ‘inevitable’ damage caused by tidal forces and climate change.
It follows a dire prediction by the Environment Agency in last week’s Journal that, in 100 years’ time, parts of Exmouth could be under three metres of flood water if nothing was done. (more…)
FINAL plans for the Pagham to East Head draft coastal defence strategy have been drawn up.
The flood barriers at Medmerry will be moved further inland which will protect the western side of Selsey, Earnley and secure the B2145 road sewage works.
Sea defences at Selsey, East Wittering, Bracklesham and Cakeham will be strengthened as the sea levels rise. (more…)
MORE than 60 acres of nature reserve on the Suffolk coast are to be abandoned to the North Sea.
The Environment Agency will on Friday reveal plans to “withdraw maintenance” from an earth bank which protects part of the internationally important Minsmere nature reserve, between Dunwich and Sizewell. (more…)
Sea defence campaigners have branded Natural England’s (NE) policies ‘crazy’ as the final touches are being made to the Pagham to East Head draft coastal defence strategy.
The Environment Agency (EA) is just weeks away from releasing the final plans for the draft strategy.
But Save Our Selsey (SOS) campaigners fear the EA is being ‘restrained’ by NE. (more…)
THE seafront and the town up to Phear Park could be swallowed up by the sea in future generations - unless local authorities and the Government take action, climate change experts have warned.
A meeting of the Exe Estuary Forum heard predictions that Devon would be eight per cent drier by 2020 and sea levels could rise between 20 and 80cm by 2080.
This would put low-lying areas of Exmouth town at risk of flooding. (more…)
AREAS of the Suffolk coast will not be abandoned “unless it is absolutely necessary”, the chairman of the Environment Agency said yesterday as he held a series of meetings with groups concerned at plans to stop maintaining some of the estuary defences.
Lord Smith, who was flown by helicopter up the coast from Bawdsey to Easton Bavents, said he wanted the agency to work with local communities to identify the best solutions and find funding from a variety of possible sources.
“We want to make sure we protect as much as possible. We need to agree solutions for each individual estuary. I certainly don’t want to abandon anything unless we absolutely have to,” he said. (more…)
In an article on the Public Service website, Chris Smith (Lord Smith of Finsbury), the new chairman of the Environment Agency, talks about the challenges facing him and his agency is to relate the giant, global issues surrounding climate change to the grassroots level, connecting to local communities and involving them in decision making.
“The environment and our stewardship of it is quite simply the most important issue facing our generation,” he says. “The Environment Agency stands at the point where environmental change has its greatest impact on the lives of ordinary people. It’s where floods and water quality, and planning and handling of waste and a whole range of other issues are both directly relevant to people and have their greatest impact.”
It is vital that the agency works alongside communities, rather than imposing solutions on them, Lord Smith argues. (more…)
THE senior official at the sharp end of protest over the Environment Agency’s plans to abandon some of the flood defences in Suffolk’s estuaries has moved to a new job overseeing the region’s response to the threat of inland and coastal flooding.
Dr Charles Beardall has moved from his job at Ipswich as the agency’s area manager, covering Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex, to become regional flood and coastal risk manager for the east of England, based in Peterborough.
It was also revealed yesterday that extra staff members are being drafted in to the agency’s Suffolk-based team to help deal with coastal issues, including engagement with a public which has proved hostile to plans for “managed retreat”. (more…)
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