Essex And South Suffolk Shoreline Management Plan 2 – Jan 2014

EA’s SMP2 outlines how EA plan to manage coast till 2105, by destoying sea defences. I will be making several posts about SMP2 so to start with here are the plans.

The colour of lines drawn along sea walls have following meaning

There are some curiosities. Paglesham is scheduled for managed realigment yet it is well protected. Bradwell right by the coast is not, presumably because there is a shiny new power station there.

Paragraph 11.9 of Minutes of the Anglian Eastern Transitional RFCC held on 15 July 2011, state

 Cllr Howard asked Officers if they would revisit the policies with the Essex and South Suffolk SMP following the results of the study.  Officers advised that the policies would not be changed as they had been agreed by the Elected Members Forum on the basis of the vulnerability of the defences.  Officers advised that they would revise the Statement of Case elements of the SMP.

Just by reading SMP we can learn there were thought to be 2 types of vulnerability

• Erosion of sea defences on high land
• Flooding of sea defences on low land

Curious sea defences on low land are not vulnerable to erosion, or perhaps SMP2 provides an incomplete description.

SMP2 certainly provides an incomplete description in one respect.  Charles Beardall, EA area manager, wrote to me on 9 July 2012 regarding minutes of 15 July 2011 RFCC, to say

For completeness, it could have been clarified that there were two examples where landowners were supportive of progressing Managed Retreat for habitat creation purposes (Devereux Farm and Foulton Point). However, this was not stated at the meeting.’

The sites at Devereux Farm and Foulton Hall were chosen for a policy of managed realignment because the relevant landowners were keen to progress alternative land management approaches other than Hold the Line. At Devereux Farm the landowner approached us in 2007 about the idea, which was prior to the commencement of this SMP. The majority of the Foulton Hall site has been identified as compensatory habitat for the Bathside Bay Port development should it proceed, hence the policy of managed realignment. These therefore are the two exceptions in our Area to the approach whereby managed realignment policies were chosen regarding vulnerability to coastal processes.

When you look at the following charts you should keep in mind DEFRA have given EA a target of recreating 100 ha/year of saltmarsh, 40 ha/year in Anglian region, by flooding farmland.  You might care to ask yourself how much of SMP2 is based on vulnerability of sea defences and how much so EA can met DEFRA’s saltmarsh creation target.

Apparently the colour codes weren’t complicated enough so what do the new codes mean

+ after a code (eg HTL+) means the standard of sea defences may be improved, or maybe not.