Scratby Coastal Erosion Group

Welcome to our website. Scratby is very much up and running. It is a great place to live, work and holiday. We are fighting to keep it that way.

This is a plain language site designed to tell you about the reality of coastal erosion at Scratby, and what we are trying to do about it.

The facts are that the coastline of this country is eroding, and the authorities do not have the will to address the problem. This is not an unpopulated area. People live, work and holiday here. Until very recently home buyers were assured that there would be no problems.

We are now blithely told that we can expect to lose homes, roads and services. Hundreds of people will be made homeless, and nothing will be done to prevent it.

We are a small group with a lot of support, and we intend to fight to conserve our coastline for as long as it takes.

Coastal erosion is inevitable, and is in some part aggravated by global warming, although only small rises in sea levels are occurring. This has been going on since the beginning of time, and mankind has used its increasing ingenuity to not only defend the land but to reclaim large areas.

In this country the current buzzword is managed retreat, which roughly translated means do nothing - it's cheaper. Coincidentally, quite a lot of these areas are close to offshore dredging areas. Dredging is licensed by the Government, who are paid large royalties on every ton removed.

Put simply, the dredgers (ships) sail along sucking up the sand and shingle from the seabed. Over the years billions of tons have been removed to be sold abroad, or used in the UK on construction and road building projects.

Although the Government have been asked to suspend these activities pending further scientific investigation their answer is that this has already been done, and their scientists can find no link between coastal erosion and dredging.

They are adamant that removing huge quantities of the sea bed will not cause adjacent materials to flow into the hole. Try digging a hole in wet sand on the beach and see what happens.

There is no question that it is not sustainable for our ever growing population living on a small island to be faced with a shrinking country.

At present managed retreat is the only option on offer.

What about Plan B? There isn't one.