COASTAL campaigners were left hopeful for the future after a government minister saw first hand how erosion is eating into the region’s shores.

Richard Benyon, of Defra, paid a visit to Scratby, Winterton and Hopton among other spots while on his fact-finding mission to the Norfolk coast on Friday.

And while there, he heard from pressure groups about the ongoing fight to protect coastal communities in an era of government austerity. (more…)

Brandon Lewis, the Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate for Yarmouth, has recruited MP John Gummer in the battle to highlight the coastal erosion problems facing Scratby, Hemsby and Winterton.

As a member of the cross party Parliamentary group looking at coastal erosion, Mr Gummer was able to gain valuable information on the issue and how it affects Yarmouth during a visit to the area.

Mr Lewis was joined by coastal erosion campaigners from the villages in making the case to Mr Gummer for investment to hold the line on this part of the coast. (more…)

To celebrate the successful completion of an £11 million scheme to limit flood risk to the Broads, a commemorative plaque will be unveiled by local MPs Norman Lamb and Tony Wright near Waxham on Friday 6 March.

The scheme will help protect around 500 houses and 3600 hectares of land, including 1256 hectares of designated Broadland habitat.

As part of the scheme, ten timber and steel groynes have been replaced, new rock groynes built  between Horsey and Winterton Ness Gap, rock revetments (rocks placed to protect the seawall from wave action) reconstructed and the beach between Sea Palling and Poplar Farm Gap recharged with sand to prevent failure of the sea wall. (more…)

The old English Nature website which hosted the original 2003 Coastal Habitat Management Plans (CHaMPs) and had been unavailable for a few months is now back online. The site had apparently been victim to malicious damage which has taken all this time to rectify.

The Winterton Dunes Coastal Habitat Management Plan is a contributor to thinking behind the leaked Natural England report with the infamous ‘option 4′ considering the implications of intentionally withdrawing sea defences to Potter Heigham and Stalham, resulting in ‘embayment of the Upper Thurne Basin’.

From the conclusions:

Given the long term (>50 years) potential for changes to the line of defence and the questionable sustainability of maintaining the existing coastal configuration along the Horsey-Winterton frontage, brief consideration has been given to the option of allowing breach of the dune system and the partial flooding of the northern Broadland area. While, clearly, this would have major implications of a socio-economic nature, it is apparent that the consequences for nature conservation and ecological interests would be of huge and beneficial significance. This is seen as a potential long term option opportunity that offers the scope for major ecological gain at a national level and in a location where, perhaps, socio-economic and land-planning issues may be more compatible with the overall vision than potentially similar large-scale habitat creation opportunities in other areas of eastern and southern England. It is clear though, that further study of the proposal would be required, particularly with respect to the viability of other long term coastal defence options. In this context it is important that continued monitoring of the Winterton frontage is undertaken in order to determine the accuracy of the predictions made in this CHaMP. Only with additional and longer term datasets can informed decisions on the future sustainability and strategic direction of coastal defence requirements be made for this stretch of the Norfolk coastline.

The original documents are now available again for download at http://www.english-nature.gov.uk/livingwiththesea/champs/pilots.asp