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…)

You could call him a latter-day Canute: like the legendary Danish king of England, Peter Boggis is bidding the North Sea to retreat.

But while the Viking monarch tried to stop the incoming waves to show fawning courtiers that even the power of kings had its limitations, Mr Boggis is deadly serious. Those same waves are rapidly eroding the cliffs in front of his home in Easton Bavents, near Southwold in Suffolk, and since the Second World War have claimed 14 of the 28 houses that made up the small seaside community. His own home is now only 80 metres from the cliff edge, which is getting closer every year. (more…)

Natural England has defended its right to allow the sea to erode cliffs for scientific reasons, even though people’s homes are at risk.

The statutory body responsible for looking after wild plants, animals and the natural features of England was under attack at the High Court in London because it wants fossil-bearing cliffs on the north Suffolk coast to be allowed to wear away, exposing stratas of soil and rock for study.

Retired engineer Peter Boggis, aged 77, who lives on the clifftop at The Warren, Easton Bavents, near Southwold, accused the body of acting outside its statutory powers when it notified the cliffs as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 2006, protecting the erosion process. (more…)

Peter Boggis, aged 77, built his own costal defences to prevent erosion and save his home and those of his neighbours in north Suffolk.

But Natural England, the body previously known as English Nature, wants the fossil-bearing cliffs on which the houses stand to wear away, exposing strata of soil and rock for study.

In 2006, it declared the area a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Mr Boggis was banned from maintaining his “soft sea defences”.

The barrier initially consisted of 250,000 tonnes of compacted clay soils Mr Boggis had brought in to protect 14 homes at Easton Bavents, near Southwold.

It has now been eroded to around 50,000 tonnes of soil and the homes run the risk of eventually slipping into the North Sea.

Yesterday , Mr Boggis took his battle to save his home to the High Court, arguing that Natural England was acting outside of its powers by creating the SSSI. (more…)

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to protect the county’s coastline from the ravages of the sea said last night that plans to vastly increase the dredging zone off Southwold could dramatically “speed up” erosion.

Marine aggregate companies want to dredge an area of seabed off the coast which campaigners claim would be 10 times the size of the current dredging zone being worked. (more…)

All 3 meetings were chaired by Malcolm Kerby of Coastal Concern Action Group in conjunction with Norman Lamb MP and were organised to give villagers the chance to voice their concerns following recent newspaper reports on Natural England plans to “abandon sea defences” in this area.

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These are the main, recurring points from the meetings, and the attendance at the meetings show the strength of feeling of the local communities.

The vast majority agree that the coast must be defended, social justice must be included in any plan & the local communities will fight for their rights in accordance with the Human Rights Act if necessary.

They will petition the Government for assurances that this area will be defended.

Download CCAG notes from public meetings, April 2008 (PDF)

A legal victory by the tenant of a cliff-top chalet in East Anglia is good news for everybody living on the coast of England, it was claimed last night.

Charles England, the tenant of a chalet at Easton Bavents, near Southwold, has won an appeal against a refusal by conservation body Natural England to allow him to maintain the shingle sea defences protecting his property. (more…)