Do it yourself dune defences
Recognising that Hemsby is far from alone in losing their dune protection, here’s some information that may assist others similarly threatened by the loss of both their defences and government reluctance help maintain or to provide for them.
There’s an excellent treatise on the role of marram dune to be seen at http://www.snh.org.uk/publications/on-line/heritagemanagement/erosion/appendix_1.2.shtml and there’s also that short piece I wrote many years ago on establishing your own dune system that can be read from https://www.marinet.org.uk/campaign-article/diy-dune-system
Another source of information regarding dune stabilisation is from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_dune_stabilization
Further to this, covering your planting with excess growth from blackberry bushes is a great deterrent to those who would walk over the planted area and so trample the plants down. This will also assist the dry wind blown beach sand to deposit. Such a method was employed on the dune we established in front of ‘RISKIT’, our first bungalow lost to the sea when the dune we stood on was taken. But its fate was postponed by at least three years.
Sadly, undercutting by high waves on high tides cannot be stopped when the sand lost from the beach allows the sea and erosive waves to come in much further. But the impact will nevertheless be delayed.
