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Campaign for Coastal Defence

Selsey life, July 09

Sea Selsey, rainforests (!), and Westminster

 Hopefully when this edition reaches you, we’ll be settling into a warm summer with calm seas. That will be good for our coast defences, and for turnout at the great community events we’re attending in July and August. 

In July this includes Sea Selsey, being held on 4th July at the East Beach. We look forward to meeting lots of people there, as we did last year. We’ll have our latest newsletter to hand out, our petition to sign, new colourful posters drawn by local schoolchildren, and volunteers on hand to answer queries and give the latest update on the coast defence situation. 

The main issue for Selsey’s urban coast defences now is funding. We fought to get a policy of “hold the line – sustain” for our sea walls, and with the support of the community we’ve essentially got it (subject to the final Government rubber-stamping). Now we need the money to pay for it!

 The Government has always said funding for our coast defences is “unlikely”. Despite this, the District Council managed to squeeze about £1m out of Government for repairs to West and East beach defences - but given the dire situation of the public finances, this is unlikely to be repeated. We’ve been told we’ll need £30m in the next 20 years, so the scale of the challenge is considerable.

 We will have to be proactive. Strangely, the Amazon rainforest suggests one way forward. Here, environmentalists are trying to make it a better economic prospect to keep the forest, than to cut it down. This idea - to make something more valuable, so it is “worth” preserving - also applies to Selsey and its coastal defence.

 Under current government rules, much of our town isn’t “worth” defending. If we can enhance the economic, social and environmental value of our coastline, then we will be better situated to change this assessment and, also, to get access to funding from areas which are not directly related to building coast defences.

 The recent District Council suggestion to regenerate the East Beach car park area, is a perfect example. If the project happens, it could increase fisheries activity, diving & marine tourism, and have sport and health benefits to the entire community. Making the area more of an economic and community asset would strengthen the case for maintaining the sea defences there, too. This might mean the homes and businesses there eventually get the long term protection they need and deserve.

 We want to change the government rules that discriminate against “small” coastal communities like Selsey. On 6th July we are going to Westminster to make a presentation direct to the government’s DEFRA Minister about these issues. Afterwards, we will meet with groups from many other parts of England’s coastline, with a view to forming a united organisation that will lobby for change in government coastal policy. We’ll report on this in the next issue.

 Hope to see you at Sea Selsey on 4th July. Our latest newsletter is available from the SOS table at the Town Council offices, and on our website www.saveourselsey.org.