Publication: “Selsey Life” December 2007

SOS

This month’s news demonstrates that (a) we can make a difference to coastal policy, but (b) every step of the way brings another challenge from those who resist the idea of our coastline being defended. The good news is that Bunn Leisure has been granted planning consent to protect 200m of beach in front of the Oasis complex, by putting boulders along this stretch of shore, with stepped access to the beach. Many thanks to all of you who joined our campaign of support for this project, which will see the coastline protected, without any public expense.

The boulders could be dropped on the beach at high tide from a flat-bottomed barge, just as the District Council recently did at Clayton Road. This would mean none of the rock had to be transported by lorry, which adds to cost, carbon emissions and congestion on the B2145. The bad news is that Natural England immediately objected to the barge, because it pushes a small rod onto the seafloor to stabilise itself before dropping the rocks.

Natural England says this will damage the clay beds on the beach (a protected feature). We say a single bait-digger would cause far more damage than the barge! Yet unless this issue is resolved, thousands of tons of rocks will have to be transported miles by road, at vast expense, to avoid a few small holes in the clay, which is itself being eroded away with every storm. Environmental protection gone mad?

Could this continued resistance by Natural England to any form of coast defence be driven by its desire to flood thousands of acres of land around Selsey? Its “Solent Coastal Habitat Action Management Plan” lays out in great detail how it would like to convert over 2,500 acres of low-lying land into new salt marshes, and grazing marshes. It calls this area the “Medmerry, Pagham and Lower Lavant Complex”, stretching north from Selsey to Mundham and Hunston, and west to Bracklesham.

Natural England’s remit doesn’t include considering the needs of people, so its only concern that people live and work in the areas it would like to flood, is that there might be resistance to its plans. Unfortunately, DEFRA, the government department responsible for flood defence policy, seems to take a similar view. A key part of its “Making Space for Water” policy initiative is to “identify barriers” to its coast defence plans, and “work through any potential resistance”.

We are continuing to investigate these and similar plans, to make sure the authorities don’t have an easy ride. SOS takes this work very seriously – we have to know our facts - and takes pride in the high quality and breadth of research & analysis done by our volunteers.

In broad terms it’s clear that Central Government wants to spend less on defending smaller communities from rising sea levels, and Natural England wants to flood land, under the guise of the EC Habitats Directive. Together, they make a powerful lobby for “managed retreat” of the coastline.

We believe local people have a right to determine their own futures, and government should not prevent us from adopting solutions that suit our circumstances. We have put this argument forcefully in a recent worldwide publication, that took Selsey as the “northern” case study of a community facing the challenges of climate change (see www.saveourselsey.org for details).

Interestingly, our councils have some surprising powers to resist or influence government-led plans at a local level. Sometimes this isn’t done, because they aren’t aware of the potential damage that could result from letting such plans go through. We are alerting them to the issues, and encouraging them to take action where they can. More on this next month.