A year ago the EDP revealed conservation bosses were considering a radical plan to surrender a large area of the Broads to the sea, prompting a public outcry and a vociferous campaign. Now Natural England has dropped the controversial proposals from its final report. JON WELCH examines the issues.

At least six villages wiped off the map, hundreds of people turned out of their homes, and thousands of acres of farmland and some of Norfolk’s top wildlife sites lost to the sea.

This devastating scenario came not from the pages of a lurid novel, but a report by the government’s own conservation advisers, Natural England. (more…)

Devastating proposals to surrender 25 square miles of the Broads to the North Sea have been officially dropped by government conservation advisers.

Natural England has bowed to public opinion over the proposals, which would have resulted in the flooding of at least six villages, and the destruction of hundreds of homes, thousands of acres of farmland and some of Norfolk’s top wildlife sites. (more…)

I note with interest the press release from Natural England (NE) covering their decision to appeal the recent High Court judgement re Peter Boggis and the Easton Bavents cliffs.

Sean Thomas (Regional Director NE) says the judgement “threatens to stifle the ways in which advice and expert opinion can be used to inform planning and development decisions”

That, I would respectfully contend, is absolute rubbish. What it may do is force NE to take a more open, honest democratic approach which must surely be in the public interest.

Read the full article by Malcolm Kerby on the Cosatal Concern Action Group website.

From a press release on the Natural England website:

Natural England yesterday lodged an appeal against the judgment in the Easton Bavents High Court case brought last month by Mr Peter Boggis.

Shaun Thomas, Regional Director of Natural England, said: “The High Court’s judgment has unintended consequences that go far beyond the specifics of the case. It threatens to stifle the ways in which advice and expert opinion can be used to inform planning and development decisions and poses a real risk of unnecessary bureaucracy. Natural England wishes to work with Mr Boggis to find a solution to the predicament he faces, but we need to resolve the unworkable precedent that the judgment threatens to create.” (more…)

A retired engineer dubbed ‘King Canute” after winning the right to protect his cliff top home from the sea faces a challenge from the Government agency in charge of conservation.

Peter Boggis, 77, spent tens of thousands of pounds building earth barriers to protect his home at Easton Bavents, near Southwold, Suffolk, and those of his neighbours which are threatened by erosion to the cliffs on they stand. (more…)

Sir, Natural England designated the Easton Bavents area in Suffolk as a site of national geological importance because it patently is one — as Justice Blair entirely agreed in Friday’s High Court judgment (“A home at stake in battle between birds and fossils”, Dec 6).

The new boundary does not stop Peter Boggis, whose efforts to protect his home have received court support, building sea defences. It means that planning authorities need to take the impacts on the site into account when considering any development. If Waveney District Council feels that the benefits of a sea defence outweigh the negative impacts on conservation it can authorise its construction. To date, Waveney has not been able to make this choice as Mr Boggis has not made a full application for planning permission — even though Waveney supported his case in court. He also needs to approach the Environment Agency for a licence.

Natural England wishes to continue working with Mr Boggis and other agencies to find a solution. We believe that the planning system is the right place to balance the public interests of the conservation site and the private interests of homeowners and we would encourage Mr Boggis to make use of it.

Helen Phillips

Chief Executive, Natural England

Letter published in the Times

There surely can be few other areas of Government which provide poorer value for money than DEFRA’s Flood and Coast Protection (F&CP) department.

F&CP now has it’s own “Bermuda Triangle” the three sides of which are DEFRA, Environment Agency (EA) and Natural England (NE).

Dubbed Bermuda Triangle because if one lives on the coast and happens to be caught between those three (one department and two quangos) it is quite likely that one will disappear into the administrative, process led and target orientated black hole which they seem to create.

The only thing which seems to disappear faster than any individual caught in it is taxpayers money.

Read the rest of Malcom Kerby’s comments on the Coastal Concern Action Group website

On crumbling coastline from Humberside to Felixstowe they will cheer his name: Peter Boggis, 77, retired engineer and gallant knight battling for the right of all Englishmen to defend their homes against the encroaching sea. Mr Boggis has spent at least £400,000 building clay barriers to defend his house and his hamlet against the North Sea. He has spent another eyewatering sum fighting a legal battle against Natural England, the government body that argued that his defences were unlawful.

It designated his stretch of coastline a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and argued that, as such, it was in the interests of science to allow the ground beneath his home to erode naturally. Yesterday, in the High Court, he won a remarkable victory. Mr Justice Blair rejected the arguments of Natural England on a technicality. Both sides now plan to appeal. (more…)

A retired engineer has won the latest stage of his fight to protect his Suffolk home from falling into the sea.

Natural England wanted fossil-bearing cliffs near Southwold to be allowed to erode raising the prospect that some homes could fall into the sea.

But Peter Boggis, 77, installed his own defences near his Easton Bavents home.

High Court judge Mr Justice Blair ruled Natural England’s decision to permit erosion for “scientific reasons” was unlawful but an appeal can be made. (more…)

A retired engineer who earned the nickname King Canute because of his efforts to save his clifftop home from the sea has won a High Court battle to continue maintaining his local tidal defences.

Peter Boggis, 77, spent tens of thousands of pounds building earth barriers to protect his home at Easton Bavents, near Southwold, Suffolk, and those of his neighbours which are threatened by erosion to the cliffs on they stand.

But Natural England, the Government conservation agency previously known as English Nature, wants the fossil-rich cliffs to wear away, exposing strata of soil and rock for study.

Two years ago, the organisation had the area declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) effectively banning Mr Boggis from maintaining the “soft sea defences”. (more…)