Concrete plan to save Hemsby from the Sea

Hemsby beach has been subject to intermittent erosion ever since large scale offshore dredging has been ongoing since the 1970’s at the rate of over 10,000,000 metric tonnes of take every year. Over seventy bungalows have already been lost along with 150 metres of fronting dune over the last 20 years. Prior to dredging, the beach and dunes were accreting. The rate of erosion varies, but this past year has seen a huge increase, alerting the concern of the many that have bungalows or businesses now seriously threatened. Some fifty bungalows are currently within 8 metres of the sea with a third of them only 4 metres from the dune edge.

Update on the beach and cliff erosion at Hemsby. April 2013 Picture: James Bass

As well as the fears of residents, business owners such as the local pub, restaurant, food outlets and shops are equally concerned that the erosion will ruin Hemsby’s £80m tourist economy. Jack Bensly, chairman of the Borough Community Coastal Group, said there are 18,000 tourist beds in Hemsby and hence money spent on sea defences would be money well spent

The Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) from Winterton to Scratby, prepared by authorities that claim the responsibility for managing flooding and erosion at the coast, including the Environment Agency, DEFRA and local councils earlier had dictated a policy of ‘Hold the Line’ that was later changed to ‘No active intervention’ (NAI) which means ignoring and accepting the erosion loss, e.g. do nothing to stop the loss by a denial to defend or protect in any way.

After considerable public reaction a slight improvement resulted when the status was more recently changed to a new officially adopted ‘Managed Realignment’ (MR) which does allow a degree of protection if approved by the authorities, but not the means to fund it. This means that in order to provide defences most of the money looks like it has to be found by those who so vitally need them.

Hemsby is in an unusual situation, as the beach and dunes are owned by the Geoffrey Watling Trust, who collect a high annual rental for the ground that the bungalows, shops and local businesses occupy, although the businesses and bungalows themselves are privately owned. Natural England (then English Nature) withdrew the SSSISSSI Site of special scientific interest status from the dunes and Great Winterton Valley and moved their boundary one mile north when a car park was built in the Great Winterton Valley so destroying the rare species habitat, this being the very reason it was made an SSSI in the first place. Great Yarmouth Borough Council are the council to which all bungalow and business owners pay Council Tax. Each of these authorities have been passing the buck up to now by claiming that the conservation of the area and flood defences are not their responsibility.

Assistance from the government appears to be very unlikely as although in the run-up to Autumn Statement in December last year the Treasury announced an extra £120 million of flood defence spending to boost economic growth and protect more homes, there was no mention of any flood defence spending in the recent budget whatsoever. Thus it is very doubtful that coastal flooding and erosion will get any of the allocation of the extra £18 billion announced for the next Parliament, this despite the £2 billion that they have received as income from The Crown Estate licensing and by VAT on the sale of the dredged aggregate removed from the seabed offshore to Great Yarmouth alone over the past twenty years.

Local councils are hard strapped for funding and simply do not have the resources required to enact a comprehensive sea defence strategy anyway, so we now are left with a 1.6 kilometre stretch of highly venerable coastline from where the defences cease after Caister-on-Sea to the south and Winterton-on-Sea to the north where they recommence. Only natural dune has protected this section up to now, and 94% of it has been destroyed over the past twenty years. What was once a quadruple dune system became one third of the last remaining one following the storm in April this year.

It would need £10m to complete a fully comprehensive plan to establish a long lasting and full means of defence, so a stop gap plan considered affordable has been placed which has been costed to come to £128,000 over the three to four years the project will take to complete.

To try to establish rationality, Hemsby Parish Council, at the behest of the many concerned, called a meeting on 25th April at the local village hall to discuss the viability and acceptability of an affordable stop gap defence system. All concerned residents and stakeholders were invited. The landowner was represented, as was the Great Yarmouth borough engineer responsible for coastal protection, the borough and parish councillors and the newly founded Save Hemsby Shoreline Group.

The basis of funding and the exact work needed to be done to provide a viable and affordable beach and dune defensive has yet to be finally approved by the authorities, but so far appears optimistic and ongoing. It was outlined and approved at the 25th April at the village hall meeting of over 200 people who voted 100% unanimously to accept and fully back it. Thus, the stop gap plan, already agreed by the residents and businesses, now awaits ratification by the Parish Council, Great Yarmouth Borough Council and the EA/MFA/DEFRA, etc. for action to commence.

Funding

The landowners Geoffrey Watling Limited have agreed to contribute by offering the fund £10,260 made up from the ground rent of nineteen of the most threatened habitations at £540 each and also supply a person for the some of the labour involved for up to four weeks. Great Yarmouth Borough Council is attempting to provide £15,000, with a probability of a £20,000 loan to come from Hemsby Parish Council. The additional labour needed will come from volunteers.

The remainder of the £51,550 required for the envisaged project would have to be found from other sources, e.g. individuals contributions. Already £4,061 has been donated to the fund organised by Lorna Bevan-Thomson, owner of the Lacon’s Arms pub, who has masterminded the campaign and pre-organised the consultation with all involved. She has set up a defence fund, for which contributions would be gratefully accepted. It could be in the form of £124 to buy a complete block or even a part of one, by providing practical aid in their manufacture and placement or in whatever form and amount donors wish to give. If you wish to support please send your donation of your own chosen sum to Barclays Bank ‘Save Hemsby Coastline’ account No.23898857 Sort code 20-53 06, or to Lorna at The Lacons Arms, Hemsby, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

The methodology

To soften the impact of the eroding waves and so minimise the erosion it is envisaged that 1.26m x 1.26m x 1.26 metre concrete blocks (2 cubic metres) costing £124 each weighing in at 4 tonnes each will be placed in line along the clay base of the beach fronting the dunes.1031 blocks in all will be needed, running all the way from Newport cottages to the Winterton Long Beach boundary, a stretch spanning 1.6 km. Volunteers would complete the lion’s share of the work relying on spare cement and donations to create the concrete blocks. The project, which could span several seasons dependent on authority backing, income from donations and labour availability is due to begin in a few week’s time when the sea has calmed and the beach given a chance to partially replenish. The work could span several seasons.

Whilst this method is in part experimental, and won’t quite come up to Winterton’s concrete block defence, it appears viable. At Winterton the council fully covered the cost for placing the huge WW-II tank-traps (toppled freely onto the beach by the collapse of the dune itself. (See toward the end of the Marinet article ‘Why Canute Failed’) Engineers have calculated that blocks of the size and weight proposed will remain stable and the best that can be afforded under the restricted funding available.

So, if anybody feels generous and/or would like to spend some time on the beach this summer, the opportunity is here

Regular reports telling of progress will be placed on our website as the work gets underway.

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