It is the quintessential coastal holiday destination, complete with a historic harbour popular with yacht owners and idyllic countryside that offers visitors a glimpse of a more traditional, genteel way of life.

Such is the charm of Southwold, on the Suffolk coast, that Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah took their two sons on a family holiday there and each summer the town attracts thousands of music fans who come to enjoy the Latitude Festival.

But now large areas of the popular beauty spot are to be lost under government plans to abandon the flood defences that have protected the town and its surrounding countryside from the sea for more than 400 years.

The clay embankments that have kept the sea at bay around the Blyth Estuary have been condemned as unsustainable by the Environment Agency because of rising sea levels and will now be left to crumble.

It means 250 acres of rare protected habitat, home to rare species of birds and plants found in only a handful of locations within the UK, will be left to be destroyed by salt water and the historic Southwold harbour will be allowed to crumble due to erosion.

The plans are expected to form a blueprint for similar strategies in other estuaries around the country. Plans are being drawn up for the Alde and Ore Estuary and the Deben Estuary, both popular beauty spots on the Suffolk coast.

They are part of a wider policy to abandon coastal flood defences across Britain, a move which will drastically change the face of country’s coastline.

Swathes of farm land, natural habitat, national beauty sites and hundreds of homes will be surrendered to flooding from the sea under the plans for “managed realignment” of coastal areas.

One new plan published for consultation last week revealed an internationally protected nature reserve, Holland Haven Country Park, near Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, will be lost to the sea when the flood defences are abandoned.

The new strategies are being drawn up under the guidance of the Environment Agency, the government body with national responsibility for flooding, as it cannot afford to maintain all of the country’s 2,500 miles of coastal defences in the face of rising sea levels.

In the Blyth Estuary, the Environment Agency has ruled that building new defences to protect three protected nature and wildlife habitats is too expensive and maintaining the current defences is unsustainable.

In addition to the wildlife sites, Southwold harbour, which helps attract more than £30 million of tourism to the area, will be lost as flooding undermines the defences currently protecting it. Around 40 properties currently protected by the embankments would also be at risk of tidal flooding under the strategy.

The reed beds and marshes under threat are currently protected as nature and wildlife havens under European laws due to the rare birds that live there, including endangered bittern, marsh harriers and bearded tits.

As part of its plans, the Environment Agency has proposed a controversial £2.7 million proposal to build new habitats elsewhere in the country to compensate for their loss. Another £5 million will also need to be spent by local authorities to protect property inland from flooding.

Councillor Sue Allen, the Conservative council member for Southwold and Reydon at Waveney District Council, said: “There is around £25 to 30 million of tourism generated off the back of Southwold.

“If we were to lose the harbour and the natural habitats that attract people here, then that income will disappear. It will have a massive effect on the people who live here.”

Campaigners fighting the decision also claim they can protect the sites for a fraction of the cost simply by repairing and building up the existing embankments.

They insist the Environment Agency based its decision to abandon the existing defences on flawed information about the rates of erosion in the area and say the defensive walls can be made to withstand flooding up to the end of the century for as little as £2 million.

Richard Steward, of the Blyth Estuary Group, said: “The marshes and reed beds on either side of the estuary are home to rare birds, insects and whorl snails. They are so important they have been designated as protected areas.”

The habitats are protected under the European Habitats Directive and EC Birds Directive after being designated as Special Protection Areas and Natura 2000 sites, which are aimed at saving the most seriously threatened habitats and species in Europe.

Protected habitats – known as Tinkers Marsh, Delacroix Marsh and the Hen Reedbeds, can only be abandoned and relocated if a case of overriding national importance can be made.

The Environment Agency claims that the high costs involved in continuing to protect these sites in the long term from seawater coming into the estuary is such a case.

Mark Johnston, a coastal manager for the Environment Agency, said: “We have to consider how to make best use of the limited funds we have available to us.

“A lot of effort was put into assessing the condition of the existing defences and they were deemed to be unsustainable. It was decided that a better use of the money was to replace or compensate the habitats that will be lost.”

The final decision to relocate the habitats must now be made by Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, who is currently examining the plan and is expected to make a decision later this year.

Details of other areas that will be lost to the sea were detailed in a new shoreline management plan for Essex and South Suffolk, which was published last week for consultation.

It reveals that Holland Haven Country Park, which includes marshes designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the rich bird and insect life that inhabits the area, will be lost when the flood defences are abandoned within the next 50 years.

The 4,000 year old St Osyth marshes in the Colne Estuary, another SSSI designated area, will also be left to be flooded by the sea.

The plan also warns that realignment of flood defences in the Blackwater Estuary, also in Essex, could threaten oyster fisheries in the area. Around 60 million tonnes of oysters, prized as a British speciality, are caught here every year.

Richard Haward, whose family has been farming oysters in the creeks on the Blackwater Estuary for more than 200 years, said: “Oysters that grow near to the marshes are far plumper and a better product than those further out to sea and if the proposed managed realignment goes ahead it could make life very difficult.”

Similar plans are being drawn up for all 3,720 miles of coast in England and Wales.

Nearly two thirds of the country’s coastline is currently defended with shingle banks, sea walls and barriers that are maintained by the Environment Agency using taxpayers money.

Some land, such as that owned by the Crown Estate, is protected by privately-maintained defences.

The risk of flooding is predicted to increase over the next century as sea levels rise by up to three feet but the Environment Agency cannot afford to build new defences or to increase the height of existing structures.

Ministers have instead decided to allow the agency to pick and chose the areas it will defend, with priority being given to towns and areas with special historical or natural heritage.

Under the policy, another area to be hit will be the around the Cuckmere Estuary where 260 acres of the picturesque valley will be allowed to flood over then next 15 years.

Another strategy published for the Humber has also revealed that within the next 20 years, defences protecting 800 homes will no longer be repaired, affecting parts of Kilnsea village, Sunk Island and the mouth of the River Humber, east of Hull.

A popular tourist destination in Medmerry, east of Selsey, West Sussex, will also see 612 acres of coastal flats surrendered to the encroaching sea to form a new intertidal area.

Residents living near East Head, West Sussex, have also been told they face having to find funding to maintain the defences around their popular beauty spot.

The policy of abandoning some defences and not improving others has enraged campaigners, who claim house prices in affected areas have plummeted as residents struggle to sell their properties.

Malcolm Kerby, from campaign group National Voice of Coastal Communities, said: “Why would anyone want to buy a house in an area that will be regularly flooded in 20 years?”

Story by Richard Gray in the Telegraph

An historic harbour wall that is in poor condition and has been slowly crumbling into the sea is set to get a rescue package.

Waveney District Councillors are being urged next week to adopt a policy to save Southwold Harbour North Quay Wall from further collapse.

Harbour users and council officers have already agreed urgent action needs to be taken to prevent the structure from becoming even more precarious but concerns were raised over where the money to fund the repairs would come from.

That could be solved if councillors agree next week to use the £50,000 budget previously allocated to the Blyth Lower Estuary study – which campaigners say has already been done.

The recommendation before councillors at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday is to extend a previous contract with consultant HR Wallingford to fund two studies.

One is an options appraisal study leading to a recommendation for a major scheme to stabilise the Harbour North wall; the second is a dredging viability assessment to advise on the viability of diverting the existing navigation channel away from the wall failure zone.

Councillors are also urged to take a ‘Reactive – Do Minimum’ approach to manage the risk of wall failure prior to the implementation of the major repair works anticipated.

The recommendations were yesterday welcomed by Sue Allen, chairman of the Blyth Estuary Group based in Southwold, who said: “One of the aims of the group has always been to ensure the future of the harbour wall, so I will be urging councillors to go with the recommendations at next week’s meeting.

“It’s also better to spend the money on repairs to the wall rather than on the Blyth Lower Estuary study, which has virtually been done already.”

The council is obligated as landowner and harbour authority to appropriately manage the risk of collapse at the wall, and Colin Law, deputy leader and portfolio holder for customer access, said: “We are exploring all the options at the moment, so until we have decided on the best way forward it’s hard to discuss it.

“We have to consider both short-term and long-term measures. What we don’t want to do is to have a short-term fix that does not prove to be cost-effective in the long-term.”

As reported in the EDP earlier this month, the future management of the wall is looking more certain after a loan was secured to help set up an ownership trust.

The harbour has been the subject of an ownership dispute for years and last year Waveney District Council, which has run the facility since the 1970s, agreed to start the process to get it signed back over to the town.

The Southwold Harbour Lands Trust has been set up to take over the management of the site and nearby car park and campsite when they are handed back to the town next year.

The harbour, which lies at the mouth of the Blyth estuary, is part of a system of walls which protect businesses, farmland and homes in Southwold, Walberswick, Reydon and Blythburgh from flooding.

The Environment Agency (EA) plans to stop maintaining defences around the estuary over the next 20 years because it cannot afford the estimated £35m needed to repair them.

Story by David Bale in the Eastern Daily Press

GUIDELINES on how the government will try to tackle the problem of coastal erosion will be drawn up using knowledge from communities along the Norfolk and Suffolk coast, a minister said yesterday.

Huw Irranca-Davies, minister for the natural and marine environment, wildlife and rural affairs, visited the east coast yesterday to see local erosion problems first hand.

He was taken to Southwold, where he was shown the crumbling north dock wall at the harbour. In the past few months, large sections of concrete have fallen off the wall, which protects businesses and roads leading into Southwold from flooding.

Andy Smith, deputy leader of Suffolk Coastal District Council, told Mr Irranca-Davies that walls around Southwold harbour need to be protected as part of a wider flood defence programme. “If you cannot protect this, then you cannot protect the rest of the town. It is a chain and the problem is that certain links in the chain need mending, or else you’ll lose the whole thing,” he said.

Mr Irranca-Davies said that information gathered from visits to the coast will be used to draw up future government policies. He said: “By the summer we hope to be able to bring forward a range of options for how to deal with problems along the whole coastline.

“This is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach and we will need a lot more tools in our toolbox if we are going to work out these problems.”

He added: “There is tremendous passion among the people I have met. When you’re faced with the possibility of losing your house or your business then that is natural.

“It is vitally important to come out of Whitehall. I haven’t come out with solutions or to preach a message pretending that I have all the answers. I’m trying to see whether there is agreement around the challenges we face.”

Sue Allen, chairman of the Blyth Estuary Group, said: “It is always useful for somebody to come and see what we are actually up to.”

After spending some time in Southwold, he travelled down the coast to see the new flood defences in Felixstowe and to find out more about the partnership work which is under way at Bawdsey.

Story in the East Anglian Daily Times

An emergency meeting has been called after part of a wall protecting land and homes around an historic harbour breached.

A section of the wall at Southwold harbour – thought to be about 6ft wide – gave way earlier this week and it is feared that the rest of the structure could now be under threat unless immediate action is taken to repair it.

A team of divers will take to the water on Monday to survey the damage while councillors hold an emergency meeting to discuss what can be done to protect the future of the structure.

The crumbling wall, near the mouth of the Blyth estuary, protects a caravan park, marshes and roads leading into Southwold from flooding.

Sue Allen, chairman of the Blyth Estuary Group, said yesterday: “Once one bit of the wall starts to go, the whole thing becomes rather precarious.

“The divers will be going down to get a better look at it, and then we’ll need to go from there once we know how bad it is. We’re just hoping that something can be done.”

Suffolk Coastal MP John Gummer will hold an urgent meeting with Waveney District Council chief executive Stephen Baker on Monday.

Mr Gummer said: “The harbour wall is absolutely vital to the integrity of Southwold harbour. It is so important for the community and the local economy that it is rebuilt.

“The harbour has been in use for hundreds of years and every generation has played its part in keeping it up and running. We can’t ignore our duty to our children and allow it to fall into disrepair. The onus is now on Waveney District Council to support the local groups who are acting to beef up the defences along the Blyth.”

In October last year, Waveney District Council handed the management of the harbour over to Southwold Town Council and it was estimated at the time that the cost of repairing the already-damaged wall could be as much as £5m.

David Gallagher, Waveney’s head of services, said that a diver has already checked the damage and confirmed that the harbour is still safe to use.

He said that Monday’s dive will provide further information so that a structural engineer’s report can be drawn up. “It will be a full survey to look at the options available to us. We are looking to complete this report as soon as we can,” he said.

Story in the East Anglian Daily Times

The effects of dredging off the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts on fishing and coastal erosion are to be examined by a major year-long scientific study.

The Anglian Offshore Dredging Association (AODA) is due to renew its licenses to extract sand from the seabed around the East Anglian coast within the next six years.

Now the association, which represents five of the UK’s largest dredging companies, is going to undertake a series of environmental studies over the next 12 months to look at the effects of dredging on the environment, including offshore wind farms, fishing, navigation and erosion.

Currently 14 licences are being dredged between Caister and Lowestoft, from four miles out to about 20 miles offshore, providing about eight million tonnes of raw construction material every year.

Some of the existing sites have been dredged for nearly 40 years, and AODA is currently considering applying to extract material from a new site out to sea near Southwold, but the results of the environmental study will be examined before any decision about the new site is made.

Opponents have said that if a licence is granted by the Crown Estate for the new site off Southwold, the dredging area could be increased tenfold and have significant effects on the area’s coastline, but AODA claims that only a few zones within the area would be used at any time.

The study is supported by the Marine and Fisheries Agency but some local fishermen have raised concerns that the new scoping area off Southwold includes spawning grounds for skate and sole.

Robert Langman, AODA’s coordinator, said that the environment impact assessment for the East Anglian coastline has just started. He said: “Although each individual environmental impact assessment has considered all the regional impacts in the past, this is the first time the potential impacts of offshore dredging and the cumulative impacts it may have with other sea users have been studied at a regional level in this area.

“We hope our pro-active approach will help manage this workload for the regulator, its advisors, stakeholders and the industry and will ensure that all issues are addressed in a robust manner.”

Story by Hayley Mace in the Eastern Daily Press

From the Holy Trinity Church looming over the marshes at Blythburgh to a safe haven for rare birds, the banks of the Blyth estuary offer some of north Suffolk’s most peaceful countryside.

But the village landmarks, animals and farmland could soon be lost to the sea if campaigners are defeated and the Environment Agency’s (EA) proposals to stop maintaining the area’s flood defences are given the go-ahead.Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s hen reed bed reserve, which runs along the north bank of the estuary, is home to the reed and sedge warbler, otter and water vole and at low tide, waders such as the redshank, avocet and sandpiper can be seen searching for food, but more than 40 acres of the marsh could be lost if the estuary breaks its banks.

The agency announced a year ago that it planned to stop repairing the walls which protect thousands of acres of land, roads and homes around the Southwold, Walberswick, Reydon and Blythburgh areas because it could not afford the £35m needed to repair them.

Now, despite a lengthy period of public consultation, the EA’s eastern regional flood defence committee is expected to announce on Friday that the flood walls will be abandoned over the next two decades.

The hen reed bed is an important wildlife habitat, supporting three pairs of marsh harrier, nesting bittern and a herd of konik Polish ponies, as well as rare wetland plants like the skull-cap and lesser water parsnip.

Alan Miller, Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s north Suffolk manager, said that up to 45 acres of the hen reed bed reserve could be lost if the flood walls are not maintained.
He said: “This is a very important nature habitat. The wall has recently been repaired to fill in the breaches caused by the floods last November, but we only have a guarantee for five more years of maintenance – after that we don’t know what will happen.”

Flooding will also pose a risk to the Holy Trinity Church – known as the cathedral of the marshes – and Southwold harbour, where the estuary meets the North Sea.

Mr Miller said: “The water from here flows with the tide through Southwold harbour and if there is more water in the estuary in the future, then it will flow faster and wear away the harbour walls.

“The defences are all interdependent – any wall is only as strong as its weakest point because once it is breached, the water flowing out will take material with it and weaken it further. Maintenance needs to be all or nothing,” he said.

Story by Haley Mace in the Eastern Daily Press

The battle to protect large sections of the north Suffolk coastline from flooding was dealt a huge blow last night after it emerged environment chiefs were set to continue with plans to abandon defences.

Protesters have fought a high- profile campaign against the Environment Agency’s proposals to stop maintaining flood defences along the Blyth estuary, but appear to be facing a bitter defeat.
A report, which is due to be discussed by Suffolk County Council on Thursday, reveals that the draft proposals for managed retreat of defences along large swathes of the estuary are being put forward for ratification following a long period of public consultation.

The Environment Agency (EA) announced a year ago that it planned to stop maintaining flood walls which protect thousands of acres of land, roads and homes around the Southwold, Walberswick, Reydon and Blythburgh areas. Officials said they could not afford the estimated £35m to repair and maintain the defences.

Guy McGregor, chairman of the Blyth Estuary Strategy Group and a county councillor, said: “The Environment Agency’s so-called ‘cost-benefit analysis’ overstates the costs… It is not a question of huge sums of money. What is required is proper maintenance at a local level.”

Mr McGregor said giving up land to the sea would have a huge impact on the economy of the area, including tourism, Southwold harbour and surrounding roads.

Meanwhile, a new economic regeneration strategy report for Waveney District Council has revealed that abandoning defences, which protect the A12 Lowestoft to Ipswich road from flooding, will spell disaster for the area’s businesses. In light of this, the county council has made a bid for £1.6m to raise the A12 by a metre at Blythburgh.

The Eastern Regional Flood Defence Committee will discuss the proposals when it meets in Ipswich on September 26.

The county council report claims there has been a slight change in the Environment Agency’s viewpoint, with recognition of the economic case for defence of the northern river wall, which protects Reydon Marsh, the A1095 road between the A12 and Southwold, and the Hen Reed beds. It says the agency is seeking match funding from other organisations to fund rebuilding of this wall.

Environment Agency spokesman Richard Woollard said that, as well as the flood defence committee meeting, officials would hold talks with councillors and community representatives to discuss the way forward.

Story by Alasdair McGregor and Hayley Mace in the Eastern Daily Press

The East Anglian Daily Times reports:

CAMPAIGNERS reacted with fury last night after it emerged the Environment Agency was pressing ahead with plans to abandon huge swathes of the Suffolk coast to the sea.

The agency has confirmed it still intends to enforce its policy of “managed retreat” on the Blyth Estuary – despite massive public opposition to the plans.

The council has responded by launching a £1.6million bid to heighten a stretch of the A12 at Blythburgh to stop the key link road between Ipswich and Lowestoft flooding.

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

ENVIRONMENT Agency officials are talking to the owners of 23 homes in the Blyth Estuary over possible ways to reduce the risk of their properties flooding and minimising damage if they do flood.

The move follows proposals to phase out maintenance of flood defences in the estuary in order to release more funds to help protect populated areas.

At first 40 properties in the Blyth estuary were expected to be at increased risk of flooding if the proposals went ahead but a further, more detailed study has established that only 23 of them are protected by the existing walls – in a deteriorating condition and, according to the Environment Agency, likely to cost £34million to re-build.

Officials are now talking to the owners about ways to protect their properties on a local basis – by creating small earthbanks in strategic locations.

The officials are also giving the owners advice on making their properties more resilient to floods – by using new products which can more effectively seal doorways, air bricks and waste pipes through which floodwater can penetrate.

Dr Charles Beardall, Environment Agency area manager for Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex, said it might be possible to use some local levy funds maintained by the agency but third party finance might be needed.

“We are talking to all the landowners and local aurthorities involved and looking at all the options for working together on a collaborative basis,” he said.

Dr Beardall said £64million would be spent on flood defences along the East Anglian coastal belt this year – more than in any other area of the UK. A large part of the money would go on schemes at Felixstowe, Great Yarmouth, Jaywick and Ipswich.

Dr Beardall said £100,000 was being spent on the Blyth Estuary’s north walls this year on top of £130,000 spent last year.

“We will maintain it for the rest of its viable life which we believe to be about five years. However, the work is difficult because the structure and ground conditions are not good. When you try to build up the top it tends to slip way at the bottom,” he said.

Environment Agency estimates suggest it would cost £34million to rebuild the wall and £6million to £7million to build a new wall further inland, neither of which it can justify on a cost-benefit basis.

Dr Beardall said there had been about 100 responses to the public consultation over the Blyth Estuary proposals and while these were still being examined, it was already clear that Government rules would allow no significant change to the strategy.

“We have been able to increase the cost benefit ratio in some areas but not enough to make a difference,” he said.

Similar proposals – to phase out maintenance of flood walls in the Alde, Ore and Deben estuaries are expected to come forward in 2009.

“Our money has to be spent where it gets best value in terms of protecting people and property,” Dr Beardall added.

Sue Allen, chairman of the Blyth Estuary Group, said: “We don’t agree with the strategy but we have no option but to work with the agency and natural England and get the best deal we can.”

Emergency flood sirens on the Norfolk coast are to be tested on Saturday. The annual exercise, co-ordinated by Norfolk Constabulary, will take place between 9.30 and 10.30am at more than 50 sites along the coastline.

Dr Beardall said he believed the Suffolk warning system, in which people in flood risk areas can sign up to receive warnings by email, text, telephone or “fax, was preferably to a siren system which, he claimed, could cause confusion in the event of an emergency.

Story in the Lowestoft Journal

EUROPEAN funding could soon be available to protect land and homes in north Suffolk which are to be abandoned to the sea.

East of England MEP Geoffrey van Orden, met flooding and erosion experts from the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) in a bid to secure funding to protect the Blyth estuary.

Mr van Orden, who took a boat trip around the estuary in February to see breaches in the walls for himself, said that the meeting in Cambridge was a success and he is now working towards putting in a formal bid for regional development funding.

He said: “We have now got to identify a partner in order to meet the criteria to bid for money. There are a lot of interested parties, from France and the Netherlands as well as the UK.

“Those countries are affected by similar problems and have similar concerns. I’m looking for practical assistance – we have been battling for a long time, now we want to see something happening. I am determined to make some progress.”

The Environment Agency plans to stop maintaining defences around the estuary in the next 20 years, which will leave thousands of acres of farmland, about 40 homes and the A12 Lowestoft to Ipswich road at increased risk of flooding.

The agency says it would cost millions of pounds to go on repairing the walls and that the work will be unsustainable as a result of climate change, rising sea levels and the increased frequency of tidal surges.

The campaign to maintain flood defences around the Blyth estuary stepped up a gear earlier this week when hundreds of protestors formed a human chain along Southwold promenade, calling on prime minister Gordon Brown to take their concerns seriously.

Mr van Orden, who was at the Southwold protest on Wednesday, said: “A lot of people are very concerned about this issue, and quite rightly. We have got to get the government to take a real interest in this.”

He is going to meet with flood defence experts from Holland and other low-lying parts of Europe later in the summer to find out more about the strategies and technologies they use to protect coastal towns and villages which are threatened by the sea.

Story in the Lowestoft Journal