Trevor Bright’s Thoughts On My Talk To Clacton and Holland Beach Hut Association

Trevor Bright heard by talk to Clacton and Holland Beach Hut Association and emailed me his thoughts.

I have posted Trevor’s emails before.  As Trevor used to be a project engineer with BP. I think we should take his views seriously, especially when it comes to using old oil rigs as reefs – the so call “rigs to reefs” scheme.

Dear Jeremy,

I enjoyed your talk at the Beach Hut Association meeting on Saturday.

1) Groyne Repairs
What I think is interesting about the table of costs for groyne repairs
is that after spending the £12k in 2009/10 at Holland on Sea that it
was realised that spending thousands was not the answer anymore and that
it is going to take millions to repair the groynes.
Your photographs clearly show that the groynes need to be above
sea level height and of course it is not just a case of replacing
the 'boards' that have gone missing but that beach recharge will be
required otherwise the force of the sea on a fully refurbished groyne
will just push it over. 

2) Funding
I cannot understand for the life of my why there is a problem in
obtaining funding. Mr Carswell keeps on about finding a pot of money
but, all we need, is an advance on the funds that it will be necessary
to be spend over the next 5 to 10 years. It is of course interesting to
note that on page 18 of the Royal Haskoning report it states 

'In some areas short sections of defence would begin to fail
 over the next 5 years'. 

This being so it can be expected that the £1.5m to £2m currently being
spent per year by the council will increase exponentially.

3) Rigs to Reefs
I am dubious about this as at present the Oil companies are responsible
for abandonment of their offshore platforms and are obligated to return
the seabed to it's original state (the same goes for the offshore
wind farms?). I therefore do not see that it will be possible to remove
a platform from one location, clean it and then cut it up and dump it in
another location. This I think would need a change to legislation which
is something we do not have time for.
There was a lot of fuss in 1991 when the government allowed Shell to
dispose of the Brent Spar in deep Atlantic waters
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Spar)
If I was cynical I could say that this was a political move to assist
the offshore wind farm companies so that they will not have to carry out
the full abandonment procedure. 

Anyway I have ranted enough.

Best Regards

Trevor

The Royal Haskoning report Trevor mentions is contained within the report of TDC March 2012 Cabinet, which you can download and read, though it’s 170 pages!

I especially like the second to last paragraph of page 81 of Royal Haskoning report where it talks about realigning (i.e. managed realiging = knocking hole in sea wall and flooding land) what it calls Defences W, X and Y.  Though it notes either the Boating Club would have to be relocated or it would be lost!

Just to be clear they are talking about the “Boating Club” at Holland Haven.  There is cliff here which runs from the slipway just to the south of Boating Club to just north of the radar tower.  This cliff is probably 20 feet above the sea wall and Royal Haskoning are talking about removing it so the sea can flood the land behind.

Someone appears to have lost the plot here and I don’t think it’s me.

What do you think?