THE future of North Devon’s shoreline has come under the spotlight at a special meeting this week.

Devon County Council has welcomed a consultation draft review detailing how the coastline and coastal risks should be managed from Hartland Point to Anchor Head, near Weston-super-Mare, during the next 20, 50 and 100 years.

Cabinet members agreed with the North Devon and Somerset Shoreline Management Plan’s proposals to “hold the line” on developed sections of the coast to prevent flooding and erosion of the coastline at Devon’s coastal towns and resorts. They also supported a policy of “no active intervention” to the majority of the North Devon coast.

But the council objected to proposals for the “managed realignment” of sections from Instow and Yelland to Crow Point and Crow Neck. Councillors also asked for reassurance that investment in the Tarka Trail, National Cycle Network and the South West Coast Path will be taken into consideration and protected in the short to medium term. (more…)

GEOFFREY Cox, MP for Torridge & West Devon, attended a meeting with the Northam Burrows 1716 Committee and local Councillor Andrew Eastman, to discuss the erosion of the sea defences at Westward Ho! and Northam Burrows.

The 1716 Committee, which is predominately made up of graziers and commoners, expressed substantial anxiety that the work to recharge the pebble ridge to protect the Burrows from erosion had not gone forward.

Geoffrey Cox said:: “Those at the meeting gave me a lively account of their concerns for the Burrows and it was very useful to learn of the perspective of the 1716 Committee. The Burrows are a precious resource for our local community and it is essential that all parties work together to preserve and improve them. I will do all that I can to promote their welfare.” (more…)

Northam Burrows England’s oldest golf course is disappearing into the sea by up to 90ft a year after members were banned from protecting it by “potwalloping” – for the first time in more than a century.

Officials at the 18-hole Royal Devon Golf Club, at Northam Burrows, near Westward Ho!, say large chunks of the links course are being reclaimed by the sea.

The course was established in 1864 and takes a regular battering from the Bristol Channel. Every year Torridge District Council has protected its seaward ridges by using machinery to pile up pebbles to limit the damage of the sea. But Natural England has told it that it is no longer allowed to interfere with nature because the course lies on a site of special scientific interest.

Members have also been banned from resurrecting the custom of “potwalloping”, where local people would pile the stones by hand.

David Lloyd, 60, a club member and former chairman, said that unless the ridge was protected, the course would lose the 7th and 8th holes as early as next year.

“I remember potwalloping as a child to protect the golfing green,” he said. “Twice a year, thousands of people would get together and potwallop on the beach.”

Published on the Times website 20 May 2008 also on the Guardian website