Friends of Happisburgh Lighthouse, Spring Newsletter
Uncertain futures for East Anglian Lighthouses
Welcome to the Spring 2005 issue of the Friends of Happisburgh Lighthouse Newsletter. I realise that the headline above makes for grim reading, but the truth is that many of our East Anglian lighthouses are under threat for one reason or another. As we are all aware, the community at Happisburgh has been campaigning for new sea defences for a number of years-in this issue, Diana Wrightson brings us up-to-date with the latest situation.
Over the last year, much has been made of the worsening erosion just down the coast at Winterton. The disused lighthouse at Winterton is currently up for sale. The £250,000 price tag might lead you to believe that here there is little threat, but Winterton has lost land at a far greater rate than Happisburgh over the past twelve months. Okay, so Happisburgh and Winterton are not in immediate danger, but something needs to be done to protect our coastline, if not, these two historic eighteenth century lighthouses could become victims in the future.
In more immediate danger is the lighthouse at Orfordness in Suffolk. Lighthouses were first erected on the shingle at Orford in 1690 and, over the next one hundred years, several were washed away by the encroaching sea - the current tower dates from 1792, so is of a similar age to Happisburgh. Reports in the press last summer highlighted the plight of Orfordness Lighthouse; the sea was shown to be under twenty metres from the Trinity House boundary.
Earlier this year, Trinity House, the general lighthouse authority for England and Wales, along with their counterparts in Scotland and Ireland, announced the results of their five-yearly review of aids to navigation requirements in British waters. A similar review back in 1987 announced the closure of Happisburgh Lighthouse, and we all know what happened then. The 2005 review has recommended that the lighthouses at Lowestoft and Southwold be discontinued by 2010, providing that new electronic aids have come on-line by that time. I don't want to sound like a scaremonger, but I feel it is important that you, our members, are kept infonned of developments at other local lighthouses.
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Patrick Tubby... .May, 2005.
The Draft Shoreline Managment Plan 2004
Happisburgh residents are beginning to ask, "Is it possible for things to get any more complicated on the erosion front?" Besides watching the cliffs falling away every winter, they are now faced with a complete new concept of "shoreline management".
To start at the beginning. After the horrific floods of 1953, which alerted that generation to the devastation which could follow unexpected storm conditions, the government of that time decided that coast protection was essential and throughout the fifties and sixties defences were built up and down the British coast. The maintenance of these defences once erected - became the responsibility of the "maritime authority" - then Smallborough Rural District Council, and now North Norfolk District Council (NNDC).
In 1992, a Shoreline Management Plan was drawn up by each Maritime Authority showing where the sea was likely to reach 60 years from that date and promising a hold the line situation. In the case of Happisburgh, a promise which should have resulted in the constant repair and maintenance of our revetments. By 1996 some of the revetments near the site of the fonner low lighthouse were beginning to deteriorate so badly that they were removed for "health and safety" reasons. NNDC did not have funds to replace them and the government of the day "could not justify" funding their replacement because the benefit of so doing did not justify the cost. Since that date we have discovered that the whole process of defending the coast is not a "statutory" undertaking but a "permissive" one, as stated in the Coast Protection Act of 1949. So no-one can actually be blamed for allowing the defences to fall.
Since 1996, as most of my readers are aware, more and more of the barrier defending our foreshore has collapsed, allowing an unprecedented amount of erosion and seeing the "60-year line" overtaken by the sea in just 12 years!
What next? Well, Happisburgh being the sort of community that won't give up easily, fonned the Coastal Concern Action Group (CCAG) to lobby the Government for new defences. Not having very much success with an obdurate and unsympathetic Government, they have since started a Limited Company with charitable status - Coastal Concern Ltd. to provide their own funding for coast protection.
We seem to be playing the old game of "snakes and ladders" here. No sooner do we almost scale the first Government funding ladder than success is snatched away because The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) moves the goal-posts by changing the "cost/benefit ratio" and we slither down the snake ready to shake the dice again. We start to climb steadily up the self-funding ladder with generous donors, village fund-raising activities and the opportunity to attract more substantial donations once charity status was achieved, when once more another snake brings us down with the proposed new Shoreline Management Plan floated in October 2004.
This document has been drawn up by DEFRA with help from English Nature and The University of East Anglia - not, you will understand, with the idea of finding a suitable way of "defending" our island without the tiresome commitment of spending money - but as the perfect solution for an unsustainable coastline where the salt-marshes fonned as the small "settlements" disappear over the next 20 to 50 years will in themselves be a fonn of defence and wonderful habitats for birds and other wild life. Human habitats would gradually be overtaken by the sea, but there are, at present, no plans for compensation or compulsory purchase in spite of around £250 million worth of homes and businesses likely to disappear on the North Norfolk coast. We are, in fact, asked to see this way forward as a wonderful opportunity in which North Norfolk will lead the way!
The most dangerous clause in the whole document is no active intervention, referring to the fact that, if it became accepted policy, Happisburgh would never gain pennission to put in its own defences. (Now you can see why we are desperate to throw the right number and miss that slippery snake!) Fortunately, this draft Shoreline Management Plan, suggested by DEFRA and released to East Anglian Maritime Authorities has to be passed by our District Councillors and to be open for public consultation. CCAG meetings have been held in all coastal and some Broadland villages and addressed by Malcolm Kerby our CCAG co-ordinator, and the general concensus of opinion is that the proposed Shoreline Management Plan must not on any account be accepted. Everyone feels that protection is the best option, but if this sort of plan were the only way forward, compensation and relocation must be a part of it and a full survey of the effects of off-shore dredging on erosion must take place.
So concerned is our MP, Norman Lamb, that he secured a special debate with Elliot Morley, Secretary of State for DEFRA, and forty-six of us, representing Happisburgh and most of the other villages involved went to Westminster to support him:
From villages out on the North Norfolk coast To London we went on a 'bus We held high our banners in Westminster Hall And the media took 'photos of us. Norman - the Lamb - soon joined us outside And gave his support - what an ace! He'd prepared lots of questions for Elliot M, Setting out clearly our case. Before we could go into Par-lia-ment We were searched by police waiting there In case we had brought in a bomb or a gun To give Mr. M a good scare! Up hundreds of stairs we climbed with a will, The fit and the halt and the lame. At last, after trekking for miles, so it seemed, To Committee Room 8 we all came. Norman asked questions, made copious notes. Malcolm and Clive had their say. Soon came the time for the special debate And our gallant MP went his way. Thirty could watch the debate in the Hall (The rest saw it all on TV) Norm spoke of the blight, the concerns of us folk, Backed by Tony - a Labour MP! Norman - quite calm - his points well-prepared Rated SMP plans fatally flawed. Spoke of threats to our homes and our heritage too. Poor Elliot hemmed and he hawed, Talked of "coastal dynamics" and "people misled" "No point in lobbying me. SMP? I've not seen it in detail," he said, "Unsustainable coastline, you see." How angry we were as we came down the stairs! How betrayed by a Minister of State! Why couldn't you face us - say you understand At least try to in-vestigate. "Y ou ' re a disgrace!" "Come and see for yourself!" "Absolute rubbish!" we cried. Would he be felled by Erica's crutch? Did one of us push him aside? You sidled away as police guided you through. Oh, my! You were rattled that day. Minister, we haven't done with you yet, NORTH NORFOLK JUST WON'T GO AWAY!!
So that's where we are at present. The guest-house and teashop is still balancing precariously on the cliff-top. So maybe we'll meet some of you again this season as you stop by for a night's rest, lulled by the sound of the waves, or pop in for a relaxing spell in the garden, indulging in a Cliff House cream tea.