A GOVERNMENT minister has reassured villagers living on the coast they will not lose their homes, even though a government body has put forward a plan to allow the sea inland.

Instead, Floods Minister Phil Woolas said the government had called on the Environment Agency to provide a report on how the coastline can be protected from erosion over the next 100 years.

He also pledged £100m of government funding would be spent on bolstering defences over the next 50 years during a visit to some of the threatened villages where he met parish councillors and residents faced with the prospect of losing their homes under a Natural England option. (more…)

Officials from government agency Natural England will be in Norfolk this evening to discuss proposals to surrender 25sq miles of the Broads to the North Sea.

Tonight’s meeting at Somerton village hall, near Stalham, will be the first time the government’s conservations advisers have discussed the report at a forum in Norfolk. (more…)

CAMPAIGNERS hope to raise awareness of their opposition to plans to allow parts of north Norfolk to be flooded by holding a walk in a nature reserve that is likely to be lost.

The organisation Norfolk Netwalking is calling for residents and business owners to turn out in force for the trek through Hickling Nature Reserve on Tuesday.

The aim is to bring attention to government body Natural England’s so-called “Option 4” which would allow a 25 square miles of the Broads and six villages to be surrendered to the sea over the next 50 years, including the reserve.

Eric Lindo, chairman of Hickling Parish Council, who will be involved with the walk, said: “It will enable people to get a better idea of what what stands to be lost to the nation.” (more…)

Coastal erosion campaigners have hailed the efforts of a cross-party group of Norfolk MPs as “a whole chunk of England standing together saying we cannot let Norfolk go.”

Jim Bratton of Scratby’s coastal erosion group said Great Yarmouth MP Tony Wright had put the case for his stretch of coastline well at a commons debate broadcast live on Tuesday.

Mr Wright was one of a group of MPs who pledged to fight on after failing to win reassurances or concessions from the government over the mooted surrendering of 25 square miles of the county to the sea. (more…)