Coastal erosion disgrace - Sky news

[madala]

Definitely a "King Canute" moment.

Spending millions on flood defence is a total waste of money and time. The sea will always win.

Two important things to consider when buying a house......do not buy a house on a crumbling cliff......if you want to live by the sea make sure you have good soild rock underneath and I don't mean chalk and secondly....don't buy a house on a flood plain....if you...do be prepared to suffer the consequences.

[Slobberchops]

Used to have lots of childhood holidays at Cowden, but I doubt much is left now. It is amazing how much land has been lost to the sea since then.

[Derek Chevalier]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Derek Chevalier said:

As they have done with millions of mortgage holders that overstretched themselves.

Rubbish. The bail-out has been of banks which overstretched themselves. If the bank goes bust you still own your house.

Rubbish, the Government has had to hold base rates at 0.5% and push the banks to offer forbearance to stop millions defaulting on their mortgage

[Derek Chevalier]

madala said:

Spending millions on flood defence is a total waste of money and time. The sea will always win.

The Thames Barrier is winning. So far.

[richtea78]

Derek Chevalier said:

The Thames Barrier is winning. So far.

I guess the cynical view might be that one bit of land might or is worth a lot more than another.

[jbi]

Jimboka said:

You can't beat nature. Maybe spend millions delaying the inevitable.. I'd rather my taxes were spent elsewhere TBH.

The Japanese have managed to eliminate coastal erosion using these things





The problem is... the reason they have worked in japan is because they have completely surrounded their entire country with them, and as a result have very little natural coastline left.

Hey at least their houses wont be falling into the sea though.

[Cobnapint]

King Herald said:

Why?? Why should erosion move up the coast simply because you stopped it in one place? What is the law of physics that dictates this will happen?

Yes, the logic of that baffles me too.

I have to wonder at what stage the authorities will intervene - when the erosion threatens a major A road? ...when it looks like a major town has only ten years to go before the high street ends up on the beach...? Because if this has been happening for years, which it clearly has, one can logically assume that its going to keep on happening in the future, and at some stage it won't be a case of heartlessly telling some teary eyed retiree they shouldn't have bought a property on top of a cliff, because many of them probably actually didn't.

And to those who say the sea can't be stopped - of course it bloody can. This country's coastline is littered with piles of huge quarry boulders and sturdy steel reinforced concrete sea-walls that are harmlessly pounded by the sea day in day out.

The hard facts are that only a relative handful of people with a small voice and little impact on the economy are being affected by this at the moment so the authorities are doing feck all about it. None of us will be here, but lets see what happens when somewhere full of voters like Hull suddenly starts getting smaller.

Edited by Cobnapint on Tuesday 25th December 22:19

[trashbat]

A lex said:

It's called Long Shore Drift and I assure you it's the case. Bit of Googling should turn up the answer.........

A good document:

copranet.projects.eucc-d.de/files/000164_EUROSION_Holderness_coast.pdf

The conclusion on pg19 covers the subject a little bit.

I remember from my A Level Geography project that a significant coastal defence will cause increased erosion rates for anything up to about 10km further down the coastline.

Edited by A lex on Tuesday 25th December 17:33

See, I know this to be true with regard to groynes, but there are many other forms if sea defence and I can't see why they would result in it. Care to expand?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

jbi said:

The Japanese have managed to eliminate coastal erosion using these things

I remember that game, you bounce the little red ball and pick up as many of them as you can before catching the ball before it hits the ground.

[Burnham]

jbi said:

The Japanese have managed to eliminate coastal erosion using these things





The problem is... the reason they have worked in japan is because they have completely surrounded their entire country with them, and as a result have very little natural coastline left.

Hey at least their houses wont be falling into the sea though.

In use on the Isle of Wight too. This thread raises a concern of mine.....im looking at buying a house about 100m from a coastline.

[Steameh]

Cobnapint said:

And to those who say the sea can't be stopped - of course it bloody can. This country's coastline is littered with piles of huge quarry boulders and sturdy steel reinforced concrete sea-walls that are harmlessly pounded by the sea day in day out.

Edited by Cobnapint on Tuesday 25th December 22:19

What is the shelf life of a RC sea wall? I can't imagine a worse environment for RC.

[deeps]

Here in Burnham on Sea the town was frequently flooded due to strong winds swelling high tides and topping over the old sea wall which was built in 1911. In 1987 after a particularly bad flood earlier in the decade we had a new mother of a sea wall built stretching over 1 mile along the sea front and costing around £7.5 million.

Link to flood pictures: http://www.burnham-on-sea.com/1981-storm.shtml

Link to new sea wall : http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/aol/imageDetails?s_it=i...

Edited by deeps on Wednesday 26th December 02:36

[greygoose]

jbi said:

The problem is... the reason they have worked in japan is because they have completely surrounded their entire country with them, and as a result have very little natural coastline left.

Hey at least their houses wont be falling into the sea though.

Until the next tsunami anyway.

[Pints]

jbi said:

The Japanese have managed to eliminate coastal erosion using these things





The problem is... the reason they have worked in japan is because they have completely surrounded their entire country with them, and as a result have very little natural coastline left.

Hey at least their houses wont be falling into the sea though.

I might be wrong but I seem to remember those being a South African invention. Plenty of coastal areas in SA have those where there's a city or harbour to protect.

[FiF]

Whoever said it all depends on the value of the property and land at risk probably hits the nail on the head. Not sure about Hull being threatened as an example but that's just me being a bit judgemental on the residents.

Seriously though, that is Holderness' problem, it's farmland, retiree bungalows and caravan sites in the main that are being threatened in the short and medium term, and none of us will be around to see much different. Indeed a number of he lost properties on the seaward side of Green Lane at Skipsea were known to the locals as shanty town, old buses, railway carriages and that sort of thing. LOcals reckoned it would be good thing when they went off the cliff.

Be interesting to see what will happen when a much bigger and more prosperous area is threatened. For example, I know this is an old article link

afaik the latest position on this is to maintain the existing sea defences for 40-50 years in the hope that a solution will be found. Problem is Holderness is dribs and drabs and will never have the political clout of a bigger more prosperous area.

[Piglet]

Coastal protection is an expensive business - £19.5 million to protect a stretch of Dorset coast http://www.dorsetforyou.com/lyme I *think* the minimum lifespan of the wall was indicated to be 70 years.

That's on top of the money spent on the previous three phases since 1995.

Where it is only a small number of properties at risk it is always likely to be a consideration of cost benefit analysis. Not helpful for those whose properties are at risk but they will have been aware of the risks when they bought.

[Cobnapint]

Piglet said:

Coastal protection is an expensive business - £19.5 million to protect a stretch of Dorset coast http://www.dorsetforyou.com/lyme


Not helpful for those whose properties are at risk but they will have been aware of the risks when they bought.

£20 million+ for a good job done that prevents further suffering, and which creates work and wealth in this country is feck all in the bigger picture. Just to put it in perspective, thats ONE 17th of ONE DAYS total 2014 international aid budget.


And they won't necessarily have been aware of the risk when they bought. Some of the homes will be family hand-me-downs through inheritance.

[Issi]

'Coastal erosion has been happening for years' - Genius. I think the words that you're looking for are 'Coastal erosion has been happening for ever'












':

[Piglet]

Cobnapint said:

And they won't necessarily have been aware of the risk when they bought. Some of the homes will be family hand-me-downs through inheritance.

Yep those properties that have been in the same family for over 2000 years are causing a real problem

[vonuber]

Derek Chevalier said:

The Thames Barrier is winning. So far.

That'll fail though, it's just a matter of time.
The uk has some of the highest erosion / deposition rates in the world; if you want to read something interesting have a look at the work that goes into protecting dungeness power station and peninsula as a whole.