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Report to the Annual Parish MeetingStory date: 26th June 2010
Following a public meeting in the Village Hall on 2 December 2006, the inaugural meeting of the Walberswick Sea Defence Group was held on 15 December 2006. It comprised parish councillors and trustees of the Walberswick Common Lands Charity. Extremely high tides the month before had coincided with the stated refusal of the Environment Agency to rebuild the shingle bank between Walberswick and Dunwich.
The bank had protected the Oldtown Marshes and Corporation Marshes for decades and had helped to maintain the area as one of Outstanding Natural Beauty, an SSSI, SAC, NNR, a Ramsar site etc. The EA was proposing a strategy of “managed retreat” along much of the East Anglian coast. They had planned to 'consult' the local population but appear to have been surprised by huge outcry against their plans. Our argument was that it was too soon to abandon defences in the belief that the effects of climate change and sea level rise could really be known at this stage. We argued for a policy of “hold the line” for the next 20 years so that better information could be gathered. Opposition to the EA's plans was expressed along the whole coast, small action groups, such as SDG, sprang up and were joined by county, district, town and parish councils. They were eventually gathered under the umbrella of SCAR (Suffolk Coast Against Retreat), a “strategic partnership of orgnaisations and individuals of all political persuasions”. Over the past three years a great deal of information and understanding has been gathered and pressure applied to ensure that the policy of “hold the line” is promoted whenever and wherever possible. However, having consulted independent experts in barrier beaches, we have concluded that the Walberswick/Dunwich shingle ridge cannot be maintained artificially to a standard sufficiently high to constitute a defence. They predicted that, left to its own devices, the beach would create and maintain its own barrier which would be lower but self-sustaining, so that the marshes are afforded some protection from all but the most severe surges. Our hope is that we might, eventually, build an inner wall to protect some of the marshes, if it appears that sea-level rise is a reality. Meanwhile, the EA's agreement to create an overflow sluice next to the exisiting one near Cliff Field is helpful because it will mean that the reedbeds can drain far more quickly and suffer less permanent damage in the event of overtopping of the ridge. SDG feels that attitudes (in the EA and NE) are changing and it should be possible to resubmit proposals for protection of the Walberswick to Dunwich marshes in the near future but at this present time the focus should be on the Blyth Estuary Group's work. The greatest danger to the village itself is the disintegration of the harbour and consequent flooding from the river. The Blyth Estuary Group has achieved a huge amount already, demonstrating the weakness of the walls of both river and harbour and it has drawn up plans to help protect the land and the communities along the Blyth. WCLCT holds funds that were raised from and by you to help the work of the group. These will be used, when the time is right, to promote the original purpose of the Group – to protect the village and surrounding areas - by keeping you informed, maintaining close contact with SCAR and other sources of information, and backing the work of BEG. Other Recent Stories :
26th Jun 2010 - Report to the Annual Parish Meeting 28th Mar 2009 - News Update - March 2009 28th Nov 2007 - November Surge Tides 21st Nov 2007 - November Newsletter Join our mailing list if you would like to have these news items sent to you automatically by email. Dont worry, your email address is used only for sending you the news emails that you have requested and is not passed to anyone else in any way. We will only send you informative news of the WSDG and NOTHING else. You can, of course, unsubscribe at any time by replying to any mailing with the word REMOVE in the subject line.
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| Walberswickseadefence.org.uk is the website for the Walberswick Sea Defence Group c/o Clerk to the Parish Council, St Francis,Seven Acres Lane,Walberswick IP18 6UL Phone: 01502 723142 Email: info@walberswickseadefence.org.uk |
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