Sea Defences

The sea levels worldwide have risen by about 14 centimetres, and that trend is continuing, although we have no real indication of what will happen next, except that East Anglia is slowly dipping into the North Sea, aby a few centimetres every year. A coastline often copes with such fluctuations by absorbing the sea's energy with coastal floodplains. There are good examples of these along the Essex coast, and, at one time, the Suffolk coast had similar natural defences.

The southern end of Felixstowe beach is but one example. People ignored warnings, and built houses on this land. As a result in 1953 39 people lost their lives. That could happen again, and the likelihood that it will happen is greater than it will not. The new monument to those flood victims now being built in Langer Road will not stop it happening again.

Felixstowe beach from Cobbold Point to Languard is about 3 kilometres in length.

A few years ago the Environment Agency decided that Cobbold Point needed protection. New defences were constructed, except that someone at the Agency - could that have been an accountant - decided to lop a few metres from the end of the concrete groynes. As a result thousands of tons of beach disappeared, to be replaced by rocks from Finland, or Norway (I think). Wherever they come from they are not suitable for a soft Suffolk beach.

Erosion is already occurring, flooding will happen - that's official, the DoE map shows south Felixstowe is in a serious position, and flooding will happen. See Pat Gowen's excellent site about water quality and erosion in East Anglia for more information coastal erosion.

The plan is to bring in more rocks from Scandinavia to build six new groynes. These will be placed 110 metres apart, and will create 10 metres of new beach.

Let's hope that life is that simple. Six groynes 110 metres apart totals 660 metres. The beach is 3,000 metres long. We saw that Cobbolds Point's civil engineering did not meet expectations, so what guarantee do we have that this scheme will not scour out the rest of the beach? It could then remove the pier (Glory Hallelujah some will cry), the Spa Pavilion (that's go rid of that headache) and all points eastward (you may have noticed that the beach is curved).

All this raises several major questions;

What experiments have been made to test the effects of dredging? The main sea channel to the port is regularly dredged, and the spoil is dumped out at sea (I understand). What happens if that is dumped close to shore? 'They' say it will clog up the entrance to the port - so what if some does arrive there? It can be easily removed. Eventually the beach will reform and a natural barrier be formed that would protect the port.

The Dutch are just 40 miles away, experts in coastal defence. Has anyone asked for their advice?

While we are building groynes why don't we also build a small marina, for dinghies, sailboards etc? That would bring more tourists into the town.

Is there a cast-iron guarantee that in protecting the Bloor Homes development at the southern end of the beach that we will not see destruction elsewhere?

It happened with Cobbold Point. What guarantee do we have that it will not happen again?