A year after a tidal surge breached flood defences around a north Suffolk estuary, a landowner has vowed to work with coastal campaigners to protect the land he loves.

Andrew Blois, who owns hundreds of acres of grazing, marsh and farm land in Walberswick, next to the Blyth Estuary, has been working for the last year to repair some of the flood walls which were damaged in last November’s storm surge.

“These defences were built by my family 300 years ago. I’m not going to be the Blois who gives up on them,” he said.

The surge increased sea levels by nearly 9ft on November 9 last year, damaging property at the mouth of Southwold harbour, washing away a footpath linking the resort to Walberswick and closing the A12 trunk road for most of the day.

The freshwater habitat at the Hen Reedbed in Reydon was contaminated by saltwater and the Dingle Marshes wildlife reserve between Walberswick and Dunwich – a site of European importance – was also deep under water.

For the last year, Mr Blois has used his own resources and money to help plug some of the breaches in the defences around Tinker’s Marsh and he is now confident that the repaired walls will last for at least the next 50 years.

He said: “We’re happy to maintain the walls ourselves as we have always done, and there are plenty of people willing to help with it. It’s like a house with a broken roof – there are a couple of cracked tiles and the gutters don’t really work, but it’s all fixable.”

More than 2,000 sandbags and several tonnes of clay have been moved around his land by heavy machinery and boats, plugging gaps in the earth walls which protect Walberswick from flooding.

He is determined to protect his land and get planning permission to repair and maintain the flood walls himself.

The Environment Agency (EA) announced two years ago that it plans to implement a strategy of managed retreat in the estuary because the flood walls are not financially viable, but since the storm surge thousands of pounds has been spent repairing some of the more economically-viable stretches of wall.

EA consultant David Collins said that the banks protecting Reydon, on the north bank of the estuary, have now been repaired and £160,000 has been spent bolstering the Palmer’s Lane bridge.

He said: “The concern was that if one of those banks goes, there is such a huge amount of water going in and out of that marsh that it could easily double the amount of water flowing out through Southwold harbour.

“Those walls will now be maintained for another five years and it will withstand the type of tidal surge which is predicted to happen about once every ten years.”

The Environment Agency’s flood management options for sea defences at Minsmere in Suffolk are now being under review.

The Minsmere valley, which is home to the RSPB reserve, is protected by dunes and a clay embankment but these are being eroded by the sea, putting pressure on sea defences.

The plan is to move part of the defences most at risk in the north of the site landward, which will continue to protect the majority of the valley.

A drop-in session to discuss the proposals is being held on Friday to the Sizewell sports and social club, King George’s Avenue in Leiston from 2.30pm to 7pm.

The plans are already on display in Leiston, Saxmundham and Aldeburgh libraries or online via http://www.suffolkestuaries.co.uk/Blyth/PrefOption.htm.

Story by Haley Mace in the Eastern Daily Press

Flood defence campaigners are to lobby parliament in what could be a crucial week in their bid to save land and homes from being lost to the sea.

Members of the Blyth Strategy Group, which opposes the Environment Agency’s (EA) plans to stop maintaining flood banks in the north Suffolk estuary in the next 20 years, and representatives from local councils will travel to Westminster tomorrow.

The move comes less than a week after environment minister Phil Woolas visited Norfolk communities and told them that in spite of draft proposals by Natural England to allow a 25 sq mile area of land to flood, their homes would not be sacrificed to the sea.

Now those living around the Blyth estuary and fighting to maintain its earthwall flood defences say they too deserve government reassurance.

Guy McGregor, Suffolk county councillor and chairman of the Blyth Strategy Group, said Mr Woolas’s promise to spend £100m on sea defences over the next 50 years should include the Blyth estuary.

“This area is very special and of as much value as the Broads. Places like Walberswick and Southwold are real Suffolk gems and we cannot afford to lose them,” he said.

After months of trying to arrange a meeting with Mr Woolas in Suffolk, Mr McGregor is going to London tomorrow with Andy Smith, deputy leader of Suffolk Coastal District Council, to lobby the environment minister in person.

As well as putting pressure on the government, the Blyth estuary campaigners could soon be in line for good news from overseas.

MEP Geoffrey van Orden, who took a boat trip around the estuary to see the breaches in the earthwalls in February, will meet with European representatives on Thursday to discuss the possibility of securing EU funding to help protect the estuary.

The EA says it will cost millions of pounds to go on repairing the walls – which protect thousands of acres of farmland and 40 homes – and the work will be unsustainable as a result of climate change, rising sea levels and frequency of tidal surges.

Sue Allen, chairman of the Blyth Estuary Group, said she was pleased to see the government finally taking positive action on flood defences.

“Relentless pressure from everyone – our groups here in Suffolk and campaigners on the Broads – on all aspects of coastal erosion is starting to pay off. The politicians are starting to change their minds. It’s about time they took an interest in coastal erosion and not just inland flooding,” she said.

Story by Haley Mace in the Eastern Daily Press