Officials from the Environment Agency have advised Great Yarmouth Borough Council that there is no likelihood of any proposal for extension of the rock berm at Scratby receiving funding in the foreseeable future.

Officials from the Agency met Councillors and the Scratby Coastal Erosion Group last week to inform them of the current situation in advance of the Borough Councils consideration of the adoption of the Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) later this month.

Councillor Jim Shrimplin, the Councils Cabinet Member for the environment said “This is certainly not the news we wanted to hear. The Council had set aside £88,000 to prepare a feasibility study for the Scratby scheme, which is a pre-requisite for a full funding application. The Agency have made it clear to us however that, with regard to the current system in place for considering such schemes, we would not be successful and we would therefore be wasting local taxpayers money. As such, we have to be mindful of the Councils responsibility to properly apply public assets and to meet the requirements of the District Auditor. As a Council, we have done all that we possibly could at a local level to bring this scheme to fruition. Only a change in government policy can allow the scheme to proceed’”

He added “The Council has just completed a comprehensive public consultation exercise to help inform our approach to the adoption of the SMP. We listened carefully to what people had to say, and it was this which led to our decision to allocate funding for the progression of a scheme at Scratby. Clearly in light of this latest information we will need to consider how we now proceed”

For further information contact Tim Howard – Head of Regeneration and Environment Telephone:  01493 846361  email:  th@great-yarmouth.gov.uk

The following is an extract from the Introduction of the SMP which will provide some context.

The SMP provides a large scale assessment of the risks associated with coastal evolution and presents a policy framework to address these risks to people, and the developed, historic and natural environment in a sustainable manner. In doing so, an SMP is a high-level document that forms an important part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) strategy for flood and coastal defence.

This document provides the first revision to the original Sheringham to Lowestoft SMP (Halcrow, 1995/6).

Guiding principles

The SMP is a non-statutory, policy document for coastal defence management planning. It takes account of other existing planning initiatives and legislative requirements, and is intended to inform wider strategic planning. It does not set policy for anything other than coastal defence management.

The SMP promotes management policies for a coastline into the 22nd century that achieve long-term objectives without committing to unsustainable defence. It is, however, recognised that due to present-day objectives and acceptance, wholesale changes to existing management practices may not be appropriate in the very short-term. Consequently, the SMP provides a timeline for objectives, policy and management changes; i.e. a ‘route map’ for decision makers to move from the present situation towards the future.

The policies that comprise this Plan have been defined through the development and review of shoreline management objectives, representing both the immediate and longer term requirements of stakeholders, for all aspects of the coastal environment. Together with a thorough understanding of the coastal processes operating on the shoreline, these objectives provide a thorough basis upon which to appraise the benefits and impacts of alternative policies, both locally and plan area wide. In this way, the selection of policy takes equal account of all relevant features in identifying the best sustainable management solutions.

The original SMP for this area (3b) was one of the first to be completed in England or Wales. Since that time many lessons have been learned. Reviews funded by Defra (2000, 2005) have examined the strengths and weaknesses of various plans and revised guidance has been issued. Some of this guidance is targeted at achieving greater consistency in the assessments and presentation of these plans, but there are more fundamental issues that have been identified, which this and other SMPs must address.

One significant issue is the inappropriateness of certain policies which, when tested in more detail with a view to being implemented, may be found to be unacceptable or impossible to justify. It is therefore important that the SMP must be realistic given known legislation and constraints, and not promise what cannot be delivered. There is no value in a long-term Plan which has policies that are driven by short-term politics and cannot be justified once implementation is considered several years in the future. Equally, whilst selection of the Plan has considered the affordability of each policy, its adoption by the authorities involved does not represent a commitment to fund its implementation. Ultimately, the economic worth of policy implementation must be considered in the context of budgetary constraints (whether private or government funding), and it cannot be guaranteed that budgets will be available for all policies.

The SMP must also remain flexible enough to adapt to changes in legislation, politics and social attitudes. The Plan therefore considers objectives, policy setting and management requirements for three main epochs; ‘from the present day’, ‘medium-term’ and ‘long-term’, corresponding broadly to time periods of 0 to 20 years, 20 to 50 years and 50 to 100 years respectively. There is a need to have a long-term sustainable vision, which may change with time, but should be used to demonstrate that defence decisions made today are not detrimental to achievement of that vision or any amended vision that results from changed attitudes and approaches to coastal management.  Considerable care is therefore needed when determining policies.

Objectives

The objectives of the SMP are as follows:

• to define, in general terms, the risks to people and the developed, natural and historic environment, within the area covered by this SMP, over the next century
• to identify sustainable policies for managing those risks
• to identify the consequences of implementing these policies
• to set out procedures for monitoring the effectiveness of the SMP policies
• to identify areas that the SMP cannot address
• to inform others so that future land use and development of the shoreline can take due account of the risks and SMP policies
• to comply with international and national nature conservation legislation and biodiversity obligations.The SMP Policies

The generic shoreline management policies considered are those defined by Defra, they are:

• Hold the line: maintain or upgrade the level of protection provided by defences
• Advance the line: build new defences seaward of the existing defence line
• Managed realignment: allow retreat of the shoreline with monitoring and, if appropriate, management to limit or control movement
• No active intervention: a decision not to invest in providing or maintaining defences.

Note: all the above policies will need to be supported by strategic monitoring and must, when implemented, take due account of existing Health and Safety legislation.

Scratby Coastal Erosion Group

It is understood that the Scratby Coastal Erosion Group are holding an Emergency Meeting this evening (6/2/08) after which they propose to issue a statement.