Surrender to the sea on the South Coast
The plan to aid and abet the loss of a huge area of the Manhood Peninsula (between Portsmouth and Worthing on the South Coast) to the sea and placing a 7km new defence against the sea 2km further inland is soon to be completed in a £28m plan by the Environment Agency. The EA Flood and Coastal risk manager Andrew Gilham claims that the scheme “is not politically driven” although in effect “making a hole in the existing sea wall” and so giving back to the sea some of the land nearest to the coast.
It is all a part of the Managed Realignment plan and the biggest surrender of the coast to the sea yet. But the good news is that EU legislation requires compensation for the loss of wildlife habitat through development, and the scheme should make up for the loss of similar conservation areas in and around the Solent.
A similar scheme was pioneered in 2002 at Essex Wildlife Trust’s Abbott’s Hall Farm located on the Blackwater estuary which appears to have proved to have been quite successful.
To read the entire article by Matt McGrath, BBC News Environment Correspondent, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24770379
