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. (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…)

SEA defence campaigners will today urge top decision-makers to help remove legal barriers to enable public-private partnerships to “hold the line” on the Suffolk coast for at least the next 20 years.

Lord Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency, is due to see the eroding coastline and meet groups which are opposing the agency’s plans to phase out the maintenance of flood walls in Suffolk’s estuaries.

The agency - working within updated guidelines issued by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) - believes the work would not be sustainable and cannot be justified, economically or environmentally, especially in the face of rising sea levels.

However, campaigners will today call on Lord Smith to help local authorities and landowners to “hold the line” for the next 20 years to allow more knowledge to be developed about coastal trends. (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…)

PARTS of Wales face a “New Orleans type” flooding disaster unless sea defences are bolstered, the leader of a coastal action group warned yesterday.

A report by consultants HR Wallingford in 1999 warned of grave consequences within 10 to 12 years for Tywyn and Aberdyfi, in Gwynedd, if action was not taken to strengthen defences. (more…)

The article in the Independent seems to have hit a nerve - here’s a summary of recent comments and reactions: (more…)

The list of unanswered questions is a long one, but at least the debate about compensation has reached the highest level, where it was previously only spoken about in hushed tones. Ed Foss asks - what comes next?

The issue of compensation - often referred to as ’social justice’ - has been on the lips of campaigners and government officials for years, albeit the latter almost exclusively in private. But this is the first time someone in such a high-profile position has aired such views in the public arena.

Lord Smith’s words are to be welcomed in part. After all, his comments raise the issue of compensation higher up the scale than it has ever been.

But they are also difficult to interpret. If there is to be a scheme of compensation, when will it happen, will it be retrospective and who will qualify? And perhaps most importantly, what form will it take - will it meet campaigners’ demands of 100pc of market value, or will the figures be too great for the taxpayer to swallow? (more…)

Southwold always seemed an unlikely holiday destination for the Prime Minister: charming, upmarket, its development paternalistically guided by the Adnams brewery. The one thing he might have liked was the quiet. Except that, when Gordon Brown was there, calm was thrown to the blustery North Sea winds.

The burghers of this most easy-going of seaside towns actually mounted a demonstration. The subject that had got their blood up was coastal defence.

Over the past couple of days, Lord Smith of Finchley has relit the firework. Otherwise known as the ex-Culture Secretary Chris Smith, he now heads the Environment Agency.

A report on sea defences, due next year, is expected to make uncomfortable reading for parts of Norfolk, Suffolk and elsewhere. Already, the River Blyth, near Southwold, is being abandoned.

Read the full story by Clive Aslet in the Telegraph

People faced with losing their homes to coastal erosion or flooding by the North Sea last night welcomed a breakthrough in their fight for financial compensation.

A senior government adviser, the new chairman of the Environment Agency, Lord Smith of Finsbury, yesterday urged the government seriously to consider using taxpayers’ money to re-house those who lose out to the encroaching sea.

It is the first time anyone of such standing has responded to the pleas of homeowners not to be left empty-handed after the sea claims their homes. (more…)

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.”