General Discussion

10:00 - 19-August-2008

SEASIDE areas across the Westcountry will have to be abandoned within two or three generations because the cost of protecting them from coastal erosion is too high, the new chief of the Environment Agency has warned.

The sea will reclaim vast stretches of the UK's coastline, with some vulnerable sections of the coast in this region evacuated and left to the mercy of the sea, according to Lord Smith of Finsbury.

His doom-laden predictions warn the Government and local councils face tough choices over which areas of coast to defend and which to leave to the water.

The Environment Agency in the Westcountry says places like Slapton Sands and Dawlish Warren in South Devon, Porlock in West Somerset, sections of the South West Coast Path and the Jurassic Coast all face chronic erosion problems.

Lord Smith said: "This is the most difficult issue we are going to face as an agency. We know the sea is eating away at the coast in quite a number of places, primarily – but not totally exclusively – on the east and south coasts."

Although coastal erosion occurs naturally, some environmental experts have predicted changing weather patterns will lead to seas levels rising by as much as four metres, causing irreparable damage to coastal defences, buildings and roads.

The agency is drawing up plans to decide which areas should be given priority status based on predictions about where coastal erosion will cause most damage in the next five, 25, 50 and 100 years.

Lord Smith said: "We are almost certainly not going to be able to defend absolutely every bit of coast – it would simply be an impossible task both in financial terms and engineering terms.

"We will publish next year details of the work that's been done, where we think the particular threats are, where we think there is current defence in place. We will begin to talk with communities where we think defence is not a viable option."

Devon county councillor, Humphrey Temperley, also chairman of Wessex Region Flood Defence, said parts of the Westcountry were at risk from erosion.

He said: "There are some real risks and threats to individual properties and sections of the coast and it is going to need a lot of money to keep it all in order or put back when it gets taken away.

"The main threat is to the South West Coast Path, which is literally worth millions of pounds to the economy every year in terms of tourists. I was at Trevose Head in Padstow and it has fallen in 10 or 15 places within a few miles." Government spending on flood and coastal erosion risk management will rise to £800 million in 2010/2011 to meet growing demands from threatened areas.

Lord Smith also said the proposed Severn barrage will destroy fish stocks and wreck bird habitats.

Slapton in South Devon is one of the areas most threatened by coastal erosion. The road connecting villages in the area is built on a shingle ridge and was breached in storms in 2001.

Alan Denbigh, project manager of the Slapton Line Partnership said: "I endorse what Lord Smith is saying, but people here are ahead of the game. We have already put together a plan which envisages losing the road within 50 years.

"While that could have a very serious effect on tourism, we also think it could have real benefits if we start thinking about the solutions now."