Medmerry Beach, where there is a high and increasing risk of the present defences (a gravel bank) being breached. The funding to maintain the bank will be withdrawn in two years' time; it is likely that the area immediately inland would be subject to increasingly frequent flooding, affecting housing, farmland and services. A strong local campaign has been launched to maintain the present defences if possible; we support the objectives of this campaign, but at the same time would urge the EA to prepare detailed plans for managed realignment, fully costed (including provision for compensation) and open for further consultation.
East Head, which moves and changes in size in response to natural forces; its alignment has a crucial influence on access to and the conservation of Chichester Harbour We have consulted with the National Trust (who own it) at local and regional level, the Harbourmaster, and Portsmouth University (who have conducted research). Richard Hill has contributed a detailed paper (informed also by his experience as a yachtsman) to the Environment Agency, urging that the Head's present alignment should be maintained if at all possible, and further research be carried out to better understand how to do so.
Now the consultation exercise has been completed, we await Defra's statement of policy, to be published in Spring 2008.