Reply from Elliot Morley MP, DEFRA to Malcolm Kerby

13 November 2003

Dear Mr Kerby,

Thank you for your letter of 6 November inviting me to attend a public meeting at Happisburgh about coastal erosion.

As you know, I and officials from the Department's Flood Management Division met Norman Lamb MP and a delegation of Happisburgh residents in May this year. Since then officials have sought to ensure a common understanding on the situation with North Norfolk District Council and have continued to explain our position to you and other residents, despite inappropriate attempts by some to seek to blame the failure to put a scheme in place on the Department's engineers in a personal way.

I will not go over the ground again except to say that I do not accept your views about the criteria and priority score arrangements employed by Defra to consider flood and coastal defence schemes, nor do I accept that they are discriminatory against North Norfolk or Happisburgh. The criteria are that schemes are technically sound, environmentally acceptable, and economically worthwhile. The latter requires that the benefits (which can take into account social, health and environmental impacts as well as economic values) at least exceed the costs of schemes. Given the investment of taxpayers' money in such schemes I do not see how these criteria can be considered inappropriate.

Whatever decisions are taken about future levels of Defra funding for flood and coastal defence we need a means of setting schemes in an order of priority and the priority score arrangements have been developed through wide consultation for that purpose. They take account of cost:benefit ratio, people and environmental issues, and we have undertaken to keep them under review.

There is nothing that I or Flood Management Division officials could add at a public meeting that I have not already discussed at my meeting with local residents and I therefore regret that I must decline your invitation.

I am copying this to Norman Lamb MP, Philip Burton, Chief Executive of North Norfolk District Council, and Ed Foss of the Eastern Daily Press as you did yours.

Yours,

Elliot Morley.

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Reply from Malcolm Kerby to Elliot Morley MP, DEFRA