THERE is still time for people to comment on ideas for future sea defences at Felixstowe – and they can do so on-line.More than 200 residents attended a special exhibition at the town's leisure centre to see the options for protecting the south of the resort, the area devastated by the 1953 floods.
THERE is still time for people to comment on ideas for future sea defences at Felixstowe – and they can do so on-line.
More than 200 residents attended a special exhibition at the town's leisure centre to see the options for protecting the south of the resort, the area devastated by the 1953 floods.
Consultants Halcrow showed designs for fishtail rock groynes and offshore reefs to help keep beach levels high.
Some sea walls would also be raised to cope with rising sea levels caused by global warming.
"Felixstowe is already protected to a standard sufficient to guard against
an event similar to 1953," said Andy Smith, Suffolk Coastal council cabinet member for planning.
"The need now is to improve that standard for the future and ensure that defences are replaced and upgraded as they wear out."
The consultants' draft report for Felixstowe can be found on Suffolk Coastal's website. If people visit www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk/info/coastdefence.html, they can give their views on-line.
Visitors to the exhibition were told flooding was a very real possibility for parts of Felixstowe unless new defences are built.
Results of a new study show the town's Manor Wall and defences to the west of Landguard Fort are in a "poor state of repair".
Andy Schofield, project manager for Halcrow, said the options for reefs and groynes had been through a technical, environmental and economic assessment.
"It is not an exercise we are just going through – the public view will be taken into account when final decisions are made on which scheme is to be built.
"Felixstowe is a resort and there is an issue of coastal amenity and leisure use and what people – residents and businesses – would prefer to see," he said.
Mr Schofield added that concern material was being washed from the beach into the shipping channels was unfounded.
Only a small amount of material was lost from Felixstowe's shore. The knolls at the Ferry could break up and increase beach heights naturally in the years ahead, but this was not guaranteed, he said.
n What do you think? Write to Evening Star Letters, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4 1AN, or email EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk
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