Fresh look at coastal defences
By Adam Gretton (Eastern Daily Press, 09 June 2005)
Coastal custodians are set to take a fresh look at North Norfolk's defences following the approval of a new shoreline study.
A year-long consultation with seaside communities will start next month as a result of massive public disapproval towards the "managed- retreat" proposals of the Shoreline Management Plan.
North Norfolk District councillors voted to invest in a more "community-sensitive" coastal strategy in a bid to find a "fairer" solution to long-term climate changes from Sheringham to Winterton.
The study, which will be conducted by University of East Anglia scientist Prof Tim O'Riordan, will involve a series of public workshops and organisations including the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Environment Agency, English Nature and the National Trust.
District-council chief executive Philip Burton said it came as a result of more than 2500 responses to the SMP public-consultation exercise, which was due for publication in September.
"We already know what it is likely to contain and that it is unacceptable to the authority and will go back to the drawing board," he said.
"However, we cannot just accept the current position, we have to find a way forward."
If approved, the SMP would condemn thousands of homes and acres of the land between Kelling and Lowestoft Ness to the sea over the next 100 years.
Mr Burton added that a �20,000 contribution towards the UEA Tyndall Centre study represented "good value" and would buy the council more time while the issues of compensation for home-owners and the impact of offshore dredging were debated.
But Mundesley member Sue Willis said she was concerned that Prof O'Riordan had been raving about managed retreat only a year ago and had now made a complete U-turn.
"An academic that changes his mind greatly bothers me," she said.
"If this exercise produces what it says it will, who is bound to listen to it? What difference will it make? And will it cause more problems than it solves?"
Deputy leader Clive Stockton said the current situation was "nonsense, crazy and unjust", but the new study was the "best way" to find a solution to coastal- management problems.
"We are in a position where the existing SMP is unworkable and the proposed one is unachievable.
"As far as I am aware, this is the only way forward at the moment and we could gain a lot from this," he said.