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Campaign for Coastal Defence

 

SOS October 2011:  Designation Difficulties

 Last month we said the two main issues affecting Selsey’s ability to defend itself from coastal erosion & flood are funding, and the spread of environmental designations. We dealt with funding.

  Designations are a related issue - they often push up the cost of doing coastal defence works, and may prevent works being carried out. But they are too big a topic to cover in a small article –try www.mpsg.org.uk (Briefings/ “Balancing People and Nature”) for more - meanwhile here’s a flavour of the issues.

 Firstly, remember that Selsey needs coast defences (20-30% of the town is at flood or erosion risk, as well as the B2145 at the Ferry). Secondly, maintaining defences involves actions like “recycling” shingle around the beaches, “recharging” the beaches with imported shingle, repairing and renewing structures like groynes and sea walls.

 How does this relate to designations? Well, one example is a new type of designation, a “Marine Conservation Zone” (MCZ) now proposed around Selsey. Local stakeholders (people who live, work or visit Selsey) expected this to regulate anchoring and other activities on Selsey’s rock reefs, but without any detriment to our fishing industry, sea angling, tourism or – close to SOS’s heart - coast defence.

 Stakeholders asked for a few simple amendments to the draft MCZ so that these interests were not affected. Most of these were completely ignored. The MCZ now proposed doesn’t just cover the reefs (which people thought was reasonable), but all the shingle/sand covered seabed too, right up to the high tide mark.

 This means that coast defence operations are caught up in the MCZ regulations. Special permissions, consents etc may now be needed before maintenance below the high tide mark can be done. This red tape doesn’t just cost time; it can cost a huge amount of money, in producing reports to show that the works don’t “harm” the MCZ. In some cases works might not be allowed.

 There was no need for this. We had asked for the MCZ to start 100m offshore, to avoid this problem. The designation organisers have said that there was nothing of conservation value in this zone, but they decided to include it anyway! This sort of unnecessary and damaging regulation brings conservation into disrepute.

 On a brighter note, we’ve mentioned Selsey Coastal Trust – a not-for-profit body that wants to raise funds for Selsey’s Coast Defences. They’ve successfully got to round 2 of a Natwest funding competition, but now need votes to win money. Visit www.saveourselsey.org for a quick link to vote for them!