Human aspect of the Shoreline Management Plan
In April Patrick Barkham published in The Guardian a beautifully written article entitled “This sinking isle: the homeowners battling coastal erosion”
It shows not the technical, social and political horrors inflicted by the Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) but the more emotive and sympathetic aspects of the plight experienced by those living by the sea where the shoreline has been designated to be given up to the sea, and the agonizing attempts the residents have heroically employed in an effort to keep their homes.
This story covers coastline residents not at stricken Hemsby this time, but at Happisburgh in Norfolk and Easton Bavents in Suffolk.
A house on the edge of the cliffs at Easton Bavents, Southwold, Suffolk.
Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian
“As sea levels rise, thousands of people on the coast of Britain have been forced to move inland. But a handful of hardy souls refuse to abandon their property to the ravages of the waves. After all, they say, we have fought off invaders before.”
The full story is recommended to you to read both as a superbly worded essay as well as one to give some deep insight into the history surrounding the efforts of two villagers who took it on themselves to fight Whitehall enforcement of its demands.
Please go to: www.theguardian.com/news/2015/apr/02/sinking-isle-coastal-erosion-east-anglia-environment
