Mark Johnson of EA, in a witness statement to Information Tribunal, talks about sea wall damage at Shotley but amazingly fails to mention an actual breach across river at Levington
Worst damage on west side of River Orwell near Hill House Farm, Shotley. The wall has been damaged but there is no breach.
Here is a real breach of sea wall on east side of River Orwell at Levington, and further along the wall you can see more breaches.
Land behind sea wall flooded
And here’s another breach of the same wall
In December 2013 there was also a breach at Tinkers Marsh near River Blyth in Suffolk.
As a digression Blyth Estuary Group report of an earlier breach in 2007 when EA’s attitude was:
During the ‘storm surge’ of November 9th 2007 Tinker’s and Delacroix Marsh wall was breached in 10 places totalling 110m. All the breaches occurred where the walls were overtopped by more than 0.2m and where the landward wall slope was about 1 in 1 or less. Without repair soon the breaches will erode increasing the river flow by 22% and this will have a very serious and detrimental effect on the infrastructure and safety of navigation in Southwold Harbour – a Haven Port since 1489. The EA have refused repair claiming “We do not accept that there is any damage caused by us that needs to be put right“.
In December 2013 a repair was made within a few days
Here are 2 emails discussing the success of the repair, email 1
From: Burrows, Adam (NE)
Sent: 17 December 2013 23:12
To: Millar, Andy (NE); Andrew Blois; Andrew; Sue Allen; David Webb; Richard Steward; Le Bas, Ben (NE); Barbara Priestman; Johnson, Mark (Anglian); Graham Hay Davison; Russell, Will (NE); charles blois
Subject: Tinkers Wall breach piling
Dear All
I am pleased to report that the breach at Tinkers has had a plastic piling dam erected today, many thanks to EA who provided the piling and to Andrew who came and advised and put it in with us. The job took 5 hours although an hour of that was teething problems with the first pile.
The dam is 550 cm wide, keyed into the bank on each side. The piles are 40cm into the remaining exposed clay wall base , which was all that was achievable with the equipment available, the 22 internal supporting posts extend a further 100 cm beyond these however. The top of the new structure is 97cm above the level of the fronting saltmarsh. A fuller specification of the structure and the lessons learnt in construction will follow for any who would like.
The water levels on Tinkers continue to fall by 10-15 cm a day with the likely mechanical repair now in the week after New Year .
Regards
Adam
email 2
From: Richard Steward
Sent: 20 December 2013 11:41
To: ‘Andrew Blois’; ‘Sue Allen’; ‘Burrows, Adam (NE)’; ‘Millar, Andy (NE)’; ‘Andew’; ‘David Webb’; ‘Le Bas, Ben (NE)’; ‘Barbara Priestman’; ‘Johnson, Mark (Anglian)’; ‘Graham Hay Davison’; ‘Russell, Will (NE)’; ‘charles blois’; ‘James Darkins’; ‘John Nichols’; ‘Karen Thomas’
Subject: RE: Tinkers Wall breach piling
The piling stood the test of last nights surge (600mm flood line from clay surface). This method clearly provides a simple and very effective temporary breach repair for walls with a saltings frontage. The pile base showed a 10mm landward flexing with a 600mm flood level. No leakage was evident.
Many thanks to Andrew who came up with the method and came all the way from Essex to help us.
If you would like an HD version of these pics let me know.
Richard
And amazingly here is an email FROM EA asking for advice on repairing Levington breach
From: Thomas, Karen [mailto:KAREN.THOMAS@environment-agency.gov.uk]
Sent: 23 December 2013 10:33
To: Richard Steward; ‘Andrew Blois’; ‘Sue Allen’; ‘Burrows, Adam (NE)’; ‘Millar, Andy (NE)’; Andrew; ‘David Webb’; ‘Le Bas, Ben (NE)’; ‘Barbara Priestman’; Johnson, Mark (Anglian); ‘Graham Hay Davison’; ‘Russell, Will (NE)’; ‘charles blois’; ‘James Darkins’; ‘John Nichols’
Subject: RE: Tinkers Wall breach piling
Is this an option that a landowner at levington could consider as he has a very large breach with issues of access. He is looking for advice on how he could make a repair.
karen
Hey EA guys
maintaining sea defences is your job
don’t you know how to do it?
