Campaigners praise Waveney MP for raising awareness about coastal erosion
It's after MPs from Norfolk and Suffolk hosted a debate in Westminster about how coastal erosion's affecting the two counties
The chair of 'Save Hemsby Coastline' is praising the MP for Waveney for raising awareness about coastal erosion in Norfolk and Suffolk
It's after a debate in Westminster was put together by Peter Aldous - after a total of eight properties were recently demolished across Hemsby and Pakefield, after becoming unsafe, due to coastal erosion.
"Causing great distress and a trail of devastation"
Mr Aldous told us why action's needed now:
"We can predict what is going to happen, but it's the speed of it all that's taking us all unawares. Therefore I think an emergency package needs to go out to Coastal Partnership East- to get them through this really challenging period.
"At present this is accelerating, causing great distress and a trail of devastation. In my own constituency, Lowestoft remains the only UK coastal town of it's size to be without formal flood defences."
"We are a net provider"
Simon Measures is chair of 'Save Hemsby Coastline' and lives on 'The Marrams':
"This idea of 'Planned Retreat' just doesn't work. At some point we have to stop retreating and I don't see a plan for when that occurs. Where does the plan stop?
"Eventually we are going to run out of spaces where we can build into- especially here in Norfolk where it's so flat and we've got the Broads behind us.
"People need to take into account what Hemsby brings to the local economy. As stands we are a net provider, in jobs and income.
"If nothing is done we're going to become a place that starts dying. With there being no guarantee that they will go to Suffolk."
Why did this debate take place?
Research from One Home, a non-profit social enterprise focused on consumer awareness for climate change, estimates that 2,200 properties in England, worth around £584 million, are located in the 21 highest erosion risk coastal communities.
Suffolk and Norfolk are counties on the eastern coast of England experiencing high rates of coastal erosion.
The Environment Agency states:
“Norfolk and Suffolk have some of the fastest eroding coasts in Europe, with over 2.500 homes at direct coastal risk and thousands more properties and businesses directly and indirectly affected by loss of property, infrastructure and utilities.”