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Easton Bavents and
North Southwold
November 2004
Covehithe June 2000
Covehithe
February 2002
rapid
gullying and further cliff recession .. also a look at
Benacre.
Covehithe November 19 2004
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The beach at north Southwold
is within a protected coastline, backed by a stepped sea wall with
sheet piling, and with groynes .. .although some seem to be in
disrepair
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800-P1000842.JPG 139KB |
800-P1000869.JPG 79KB |
800-P1000843.JPG 144KB
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The sea defences taking a
fair amount of punishment from a choppy sea. To the north is Easton
Bavents and the eroding coast.
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800-P1000845.JPG 154KB |
500-P1000868.JPG 127KB
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800-P1000846.JPG 104KB |
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The transition from
maintained and organised defences, to the boulders (and tetrahydra) and
then topsoil of ) the improvised defences.
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800-P1000849.JPG 134KB |
800-P1000851.JPG 198KB |
800-P1000850.JPG 137KB
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The fine topsoil is eroding
rapidly (left) and undermining the beach access track (centre) whose
edge is crumbling. The relationship between beach, access track and
clifftop house can be seen on the right.
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800-P1000852.JPG 197KB |
600-P1000856.JPG 128KB |
800-P1000863.JPG 159KB
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The structure of the cliffs
at Easton Bavents. Despite intervention, the building appears to have
little time left unless the cliff is replaced directly in front of it,
and to the same level as the house.
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800-P1000858.JPG 229KB |
800-P1000857.JPG 78KB |
800-P1000854.JPG 180KB
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To the north of the
improvised defences can be seen the cliff in its natural state.
Humus-rich boulders have fallen from the uppermost layers, and the
structure of the fine sand is visible. The coast here, as at Covehithe,
has no substantial resistance to erosion, and any falls are soon removed
fro its base (right).
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600-P1000860.JPG 225KB |
800-P1000853.JPG 159KB |
600-P1000862.JPG 226KB
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Southwold pier seen from the
roadway to the beach at Easton Bavents. |
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800-P1000855.JPG 61KB |
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BBC on Peter Boggis and
Easton Bavents
Waveney Council statement |
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Shifting Sands
“Too expensive and unlikely to have lasting
benefits…” that is how a suggestion
that a similar scheme for Southwold to the one at Sea Palling was
dismissed.
The scheme at Sea Palling, pictured above, is one of rock barriers
running parallel to the shoreline and demonstrates an option that
could also have huge benefits for the Southwold frontage.
However, Town Councillors have given their backing to another scheme
drawn up by Halcrow Group Ltd., even though some Cllrs have
expressed doubts about the effectiveness of such a plan.
Sole Bay
was once a real bay until Easton Ness to the north and Dunwich to
the south were lost to the sea. For hundreds of years the coast
around Southwold has been eroding; at Easton Bavents, north of the
pier, around 10 metres of farmland was lost to the sea in 2001.
Southwold itself has been threatened and, in the 19th century, a
variety of groynes and breakwaters were constructed to try to
protect the shoreline.
They needed constant repair and replacement and were unpopular with
fishermen because they made sailing hazardous. Today these groynes
are so dilapidated that they are no longer effective at holding the
beach material on the shoreline, but instead allow the free movement
of water and wave action to constantly erode the beach.
Since
the 1900s sea defence work has continued. Concrete promenades
stemmed the erosion to the coastal border of the town itself and the
groynes you see now were erected in 1980. Even so, high tides
combined with gale force winds still from time to time, drive the
sea over the promenade, sometimes sweeping away a beach hut or two.
Meanwhile the erosion of the sand cliffs at Easton continues and
there is fear that one day the sea will break through and sweep in
towards the town over the marshes from the North.
Urgent
work to replace the ageing groynes and build up the beach has been
put ‘on hold’ because of a lack of funds – it is now urgent that the
existing defences to the north of Southwold do not become undermined
or breached before coast protection work is initiated.
While
the agencies responsible for the protection of the coast have been
dithering, local resident Mr. Peter Boggis has been taking action by
tipping thousands of tons of soft material over the cliff at Easton
Bavents to form a temporary barrier and so slow the rate of erosion.
Although the authorities have threatened Mr. Boggis with legal
action in order to stop him, as yet they have not come up with a
better and more cost effective remedy – however the Organ noted that
one of the Environment Agency’s ‘Preferred Options’ for beach
protection recommends ‘the import of beach material to create and
maintain a protective beach at a design level well above the current
situation’ – is this not exactly what Mr. Boggis has been doing? And
at no cost to the public purse!
In their latest joint newsletter, both the Environment Agency and
Waveney District Council acknowledge that “works to the northern end
of Easton Marshes have been deferred, and that the urgency for new
works has been reduced following the cliff protection works
undertaken by a private landowner”.
During a
Special Meeting of Southwold Town Council on 24th August, to
consider an application for development permission to improve
existing coastal and river defences by WDC, Cllrs voted in favour of
accepting what is known as ‘the Preferred Option’ . This is a scheme
to; i) reconstruct parts of the existing seawall and promenade, ii)
remove existing derelict groynes and replace them with shorter, more
closely spaced groynes in rock north of the pier, and timber to the
south of the pier, iii) to import beach material and iv) to
construct a new earth embankment at Botany Marshes to the west of
the town.
During these discussions, Independent WDC Cllr Ladd declared that he
had been advised not to speak, which would beg the question - whose
interests do representatives that sit on both WDC and the Town
Council have at heart?
Other Cllrs professed that they were not technically competent to
comment on the scheme, which left very few Cllrs to express any
opinion.
Cllr Goldsmith affirmed his view that Southwold is being outflanked
by the sea and nothing can be done about it. While Cllr Austin
thought any new rock groynes would prove more useful to mussel
pickers, than act as sea defences. Cllr Miller thought no one was an
expert on coastal erosion, there were just varying degrees of
ignorance on the subject. He also felt the new pier had somehow
affected wave movement along the shore and this had led to a change
in the scouring of the beach.
(Thanks
to Southwold Museum and Eoin Costen of Craftsman Publishing for
material supplied).
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