It is hoped that as many residents will attend as possible to let us know your views.

Their association with Scratby goes back 3 generations and they ‘very much look forward to working with the group to safeguard the future of the place we consider a small paradise’.

Again welcome, and well said.

Councillors and Officers from County, District, Borough and Parish Councils were also present together with representatives from the Crown Estates and the Environment Agency.

While one of the objectives of the meeting appeared to be to introduce a Marine Aggregate Regional Environmental Assessment (MAREA) being carried out by one of the industries consultants EMU Limited, the representatives from AODA were adamant that dredging does not cause coastal erosion.

The general consensus from the audience was that in order to prove the point beyond reasonable doubt an independent study was required. No conclusion was reached but hopefully the open discussion which took place will pave the way for further investigations. Ideally dredging should be suspended until the results of a totally independent study are forthcoming.

Two questionnaires are currently in circulation and can be completed by anyone who has an interest. The first is from EMU, telephone 01489 860050 and is due back by October 10th and the second from Marine Ecological Surveys Ltd, 01225 442211 is due back by October 27th and relates directly to Licence Area 202 (Crossands). These are both referred to as scoping studies.

Scratby was first developed for holiday homes in 1934 and has maintained a strong seaside and residential identity over time . However, this cliff-top community is now facing the ultimate tide of change as a result of cliff erosion and related land and house loss. Scratby Coastal Erosion Group is a community group of local residents established to address this major issue on coastal change.

Ormesby Junior School had already planned to study coasts and erosion during this year’s summer term and so were very keen to be involved with Holding Back the Tide. And like other schools, they can envisage how their project and the topic of their local coast will be able to link in with other curriculum areas. ‘We want to use our locality as much as possible and being part of this project would give a real focus and purpose to this area of study for the children’ said Mrs D Whiting, School Head.

The visit was arranged by Member of Parliament Tony Wright, and the Minister met representatives from Erosion Groups from Scratby and nearby villages of Winterton and Hemsby. Members of the Great Yarmouth Borough Council and the Environment Agency were also in attendance.

The Minister was shown the problem by MP Tony Wright and Borough Councillors Jim Shrimplin and Charles Reynolds, and he expressed considerable interest, and asked numerous questions of those present to get a further insight into the problem.

Robert Stephenson of the Scratby Coastal Erosion Group, said that it was a great opportunity to discuss the situation at the ‘ highest level’, and that he is hopeful that on going talks between all parties will make further progress to secure the future of the community.

In the meantime the Scratby Coastal Erosion Group is in discussion with Great Yarmouth Borough Council regarding the project preparation for the rock berm extension from California to Newport.

Once this work has been carried out it will enable MP Tony Wright to press ahead to seek financial approval.

The body, which normally focuses on effective use of national finances, has been asked to look at the effect of extracting gravel and sand from the seabed and to see whether it is causing widespread coastal erosion in East Anglia and Yorkshire.

The washing away of beaches and undermining of clifftop homes has been associated with rising sea levels and global warming, but some marine scientists and local communities suspect that offshore dredging has a far more significant impact. “Global warming has been estimated to increase sea levels by 3.2mm a year [at most] and East Anglia is tipping into the sea, due to movement of the tectonic plates, by about 2mm a year,” said Pat Gowen, spokesman for Marinet, a marine ecology group. “The impact of industrial-scale aggregate dredging in the North Sea has been far greater.

“In places the sea floor has been deepened by as much as five metres.”

These holes, he says, make the seabed steeper, suck in shingle, and weaken offshore sandbanks which otherwise would break up large waves. “The dredging ships use enormous vacuum cleaners. Not only do they destroy the seabed but they also smother marine life elsewhere.”

The most intensive dredging has been off Great Yarmouth; near this area, claims Marinet, erosion is most severe. The Environment Agency, which buys dredged materials to shore up beaches, and the dredging industry, represented by the British Marine Aggregate Producers Association, dispute the claims. About 25m tonnes of coarse gravel and sand is extracted from the sea around England and Wales each year.

Gowen has asked the NAO to investigate whether this is a sensible use of public money.

A NAO spokeswoman said the agency was not carrying out a full investigation “at the moment”, but confirmed it was “looking at the issue”.

Alison Baptiste, policy manager at the Environment Agency, said the organisation was attempting to manage beaches in a sustainable way.

^* This article was originally published in The Guardian on June 2, 2008.

Jim Bratton of Scratby’s coastal erosion group said Great Yarmouth MP Tony Wright had put the case for his stretch of coastline well at a commons debate broadcast live on Tuesday.

Mr Wright was one of a group of MPs who pledged to fight on after failing to win reassurances or concessions from the government over the mooted surrendering of 25 square miles of the county to the sea.

Environment minister Phil Woolas promised to visit the threatened area between Eccles and Winterton, but he glossed over an invitation by MP Norman Lamb officially to remove the highly controversial “worst case” sea defences option put forward by Natural England.

And he stressed in the Commons that “it is not the government’s policy to give compensation for the impact of floods and coastal erosion”.

Although Mr Bratton was disappointed by Mr Woolas’s “unsympathetic” response he was heartened by the debate which took local concerns to the highest level, adding “Mr Woolas can now be in no doubt about the widespread strength of feeling gathering pace.”

He said: “Tony put his point across very well about the flooding in Great Yarmouth and the erosion at Scratby. Afterall he has a coastline to worry about too although the emphasis has been on the whole of Norfolk. It was an opportunity for our area to be highlighted as well. With all but one of the Norfolk MPs saying the same thing it has to be a step forward because everyone is together.

“It’s a whole chunk of England standing together all speaking up and saying the same thing - we cannot let Norfolk go.”

Mr Woolas added that there was an obligation to answer the question of whether compensation should be provided “if damage has been caused by climate change rather than the natural processes of erosion or flooding”. But he did not answer it himself.

Figures released to the Countryside Alliance under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed that at least 14,434 new homes in the East are planned for construction on flood plains or in flood risk areas.

Forty local authorities in the East responded to the Freedom of Information request. A total of 293,542 new homes are planned of which 14,434 are in flood risk areas. The research followed the Government’s admission, last year, that it “does not collect centrally the number of houses planned for construction on flood plains”.

A spokesman said: “Climate change and the increasing frequency of major flooding have led the Government to address the risk of flooding for new development through the planning process. This does not, however, address the legacy of development proposed before the new policy.

“The Government needs to carry out a full audit of housing proposed for flood risk areas. The alternative is a time-bomb of thousands of un-insurable homes in the East under constant risk of flooding.”

It is hoped that the project will be ready to be submitted to the Environment Agency when the next batch of finance is due to become available in 2011. Although there is no guarantee of approval, a viable project needs to be submitted to be given consideration.

There is also the possibility that the current criteria may change, or that more funds could be allocated to coastal defences before then.

In the meantime, the Coastal Erosion Group and the Borough Council are constantly monitoring beach changes and tidal conditions. Any comments or observations by local residents or visitors are always welcome.

Please call 01493 732142 or comment on our web site.

Proposals for the future of the waterways have already been discussed behind closed doors at a conference in Norwich on climate change, organised by Natural England and attended by representatives of the Environment Agency, Broads Authority and Norfolk County Council, plus other organisations.

But the public needed a forum to make their feelings known, said Coastal Concern Action Group co-ordinator Malcolm Kerby.

Although some people might perceive CCAG as a Happisburgh-based group with a main focus on cliff erosion, it has built up a reach into several government departments and is now an internationally-recognised body.

There has been a massive response in the last few days. We need to strike while the iron is hot and give people the chance to say their piece. This can then be fed back up the chain via us and the MP.

We need to try and get an air of calm back to proceedings and explain to people that horrendous though this proposal may be, it is purely the wish list of a government quango, a quango which does not have the ultimate power to put it in place.

We cannot let them keep banging on about this without consulting with the stakeholders, which means us.

These three meetings will be in-house gatherings for the wider family of north-east Norfolk to gather and discuss, there will be no constraints, no officialdom, an uninhibited discussion.

Mr Kerby said people needed to vent their anger at the authorities responsible for shaping coastal defence policy - Defra, the Environment Agency and Natural England.

North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb will attend the meetings and said yesterday:

We need an opportunity to talk to the communities concerned and to give them an opportunity to raise particular concerns and anxieties.

The meetings will be held at St Mary’s Church, in Hickling, on April 8; Potter Heigham village hall on April 9; and Sea Palling village hall on April 15. All meetings start at 7.30pm and will be open forums.

These include a change of status for Scratby beach from ‘no active intervention’ to ‘managed retreat’, thus enabling essential repairs to be carried out in the future to buy time to allow long term planning to be put in place.

In addition a social justice clause will be added to provide compensation to those adversley affected by coastal erosion in the future.

Furthermore the £100,000 required to advance the plans for the rock berm extension will be carried over into the next financial year.

Scratby Coastal Erosion Group are pleased with progress so far, and are looking forward to working with the Council to take matters further. It has been agreed to hold regular discussions between the Erosion Group and the Borough Council, and it is hoped that the first of these meetings will take place in March.

Thanks are due to Councillors Jim Shrimplin and Charles Reynolds, Tim Howard (Head of Regeneration & Environment), Officers of GYBC, Members of Ormesby with Scratby Parish Council and of course our Member of Parliament, Tony Wright, who has been very supportive.