High tides and winds leave caravans ‘dangerously close to edge’ as area in Lowestoft declared unsafe
People have been evacuated from a Suffolk holiday park after part of a road collapsed and left some of the caravans “dangerously close to the edge”.
The coastguard was called to Pakefield Holiday Park in Lowestoft after high tides and wind eroded part of the beach.
Continue reading...Votes invited for the public’s top 10 resorts and experiences, from beach huts and lidos to the Blackpool Tower
The British seaside may be derided by some for being as tacky as the candyfloss stuck to the side of your mouth. Yet tackiness is fundamental to its charm, according to campaigners who say that seaside heritage sites should be protected as fiercely as castles and stately homes.
The Seaside Heritage Network (SHN) says amusement parks, lidos and scenic railways are all part of the UK’s role in the creation of modern tourism and should be cherished.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Assessment that used to happen annually will now take six years despite rising concerns
Continue reading...Licensing for scallop dredging and trawling must comply with National Marine Plan after judicial review by Open Seas charity
The Scottish government should stop approving licences for fishing vessels using methods believed to cause harm to habitats, a charity working to protect marine life has urged, after a court declared a routine licensing decision to be unlawful.
Scotland’s highest court ruled that the Scottish government had failed to act in accordance with Scotland’s National Marine Plan (NMP) when varying fishing licences last December, after a judicial review by the conservation charity Open Seas. It is legally obliged to act in accordance with its environmental duties, as stated in the NMP, when making these decisions.
Continue reading...Barring public access to beaches and other sites is not a model for development. Transparency and engagement are needed
Walk along a Caribbean beach, which may stretch for miles, and your stroll is guaranteed to be cut short by an angry hotel security guard. In recent years, the Caribbean has seen a worrying trend of governments readily selling off assets to foreign corporations and political financiers.
Prime real estate, protected land and valuable resources are being relinquished without consideration for long-term consequences. It raises questions about whether remnants of the colonial mindset still prevail in political ideologies and decision-making.
Continue reading...With 100 tonnes of clothing from the west discarded every day in Accra, ‘fast fashion’ brands must be forced to help pay for the choking textile waste they create, environmentalists say
A group of secondhand clothes dealers from Ghana have visited Brussels to lobby for Europe-wide legislation to compel the fashion industry to help address the “environmental catastrophe” of dumping vast amounts of textiles in the west African country.
The traders from Kantamanto in Accra, one of the world’s largest secondhand clothing markets, met Alice Bah Kuhnke, an MEP with Sweden’s Green party, environmental organisations and representatives from the European Commission and the European Environment Bureau to argue that proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulation should ensure Ghana receives funds towards managing the 100 tonnes of clothing discarded at the market every day.
Continue reading...Shadow minister submits bill to curb spills as Environment Agency reveals sewage was dumped for almost 1m hours last year
Ministers have treated coastal communities as if they are “open sewers”, Labour has said, after a damaging analysis of Environment Agency (EA) data revealed sewage was dumped for almost a million hours last year.
In total, the data – which was analysed by the party – shows 141,777 sewage-dumping events occurred across 137 constituencies on the coasts of England and Wales in 2022.
Continue reading...Historian Dan Snow pleads for person to come forward who removed head from animal washed up on Lepe beach
An appeal has been launched to recover the head of a rare smalltooth sand tiger shark after the fish was washed up on a Hampshire beach.
The 2 metre (6ft) long shark was initially found on Lepe beach on Friday.
Continue reading...Councillor says continuing loss of land to the sea would damage local economy, which is heavily dependent on visitors
A councillor has warned that continued erosion of a Norfolk coastline could cause a dramatic decline in the local economy, after a seaside home was demolished.
Several wooden properties, built on sand dunes at Hemsby, are perilously close to toppling into the sea due to coastal erosion.
Continue reading...Environment Agency paints bleak picture of coastal regions with eco-systems and people coming under increased pressure
Dredging is likely to increase around the English coast, while pollution and sewage are piling pressure on coastal eco-systems, and an increasing number of people are at risk of coastal flooding, the Environment Agency has warned.
Three quarters of shellfish waters around England failed to meet “aspirational” standards for environmental protection in 2021, the report by the agency’s chief scientist’s group found.
Continue reading...Environment Agency under fire for extending schedule for tackling pollution in rivers, lakes and coastal waters to 2063
Targets to clean up the majority of England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters suffering from a cocktail of agricultural and sewage pollution have been pushed back from 2027 to 2063.
Not one English waterway, including rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters is in good ecological and chemical health at present, with pollution from water treatment plants and agriculture the key sources of the damage. The Environment Agency said on Thursday £5.3bn was being invested for the next five years to stop the further deterioration of waterways.
Continue reading...English Heritage identifies six most vulnerable sites as climate change intensifies coastal erosion
The wonderful wildness of the spot, a rocky Cornish headland pounded relentlessly by Atlantic breakers, has inspired poets, artists and dreamers for many a century.
But Tintagel, immortalised in British mythology as the place of King Arthur’s conception, is one of a string of castles at risk of tumbling into the sea as climate change increases the pace of coastal erosion.
Continue reading...Environment Agency figures indicate people could be swimming in human waste this summer without warning
Sewage monitors at some popular seaside destinations in England and Wales are faulty or not installed, Environment Agency data has revealed, meaning people could be swimming in human waste this summer without realising.
Seaside holidays this year have been marred by water companies pumping raw sewage into the ocean, with popular beaches in areas including Sussex and Devon having to close.
Continue reading...Campaigner Feargal Sharkey says profiteering from firms that dump raw sewage into rivers an ‘obscenity’
The Environment Agency’s pension fund owns stakes in a string of British water firms – despite the watchdog calling for industry bosses to be jailed over shocking pollution levels, the Guardian can reveal.
An analysis of the Environment Agency Pension Fund’s investments shows it holds shares or bonds worth £28m in six of the largest water companies.
Continue reading...Holidaymakers are worried about plans by council bosses to cash in by selling the huts – to boost their budget with a £54m windfall
The multicoloured wooden beach huts lining the golden sands of Bournemouth and Poole were in full use once again this weekend as adults basked in deckchairs and children built sandcastles.
These simple structures on this famous stretch of the Dorset coastline are highly sought-after, with typical waiting times for a long-term rental ranging from five to 20 years. However, some users are now worried about plans by council bosses to cash in on the huts by selling them to a “special purpose vehicle” (SPV) to boost their budget with a £54m windfall.
Continue reading...Risk of significant tsunami within next 30 years is nearly 100%, Unesco says, as it urges coastal cities to become ‘tsunami-ready’
A tsunami could soon hit major cities on or near the Mediterranean Sea including Marseille, Alexandria and Istanbul, with a nearly 100% chance of a wave reaching more than a metre high in the next 30 years, according to Unesco.
The risk of a tsunami in Mediterranean coastal communities is predicted to soar as sea levels rise. While communities in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, where most tsunamis occur, were often aware of the dangers, it was underestimated in other coastal regions, including the Mediterranean, Unesco said.
Continue reading...British crown estate portfolio rises in value by 8.3% to £15.6bn
The value of rights owned by the Queen’s property company to exploit the seabed around Britain’s coastline has swelled to £5bn after a record-breaking auction of plots for offshore windfarms.
Profits for the crown estate, which generates money for the Treasury and the royal family, jumped by £43.4m to £312.7m in the year to the end of March.
Continue reading...US wildlife agency agrees to review protection for habitats after conservationists sue over mass die-offs from poor water quality
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has agreed to update critical habitat protections for manatees after legal pressure from environmental groups, as the animals continue to die in record numbers.
More than 1,000 manatees died in Florida last year, wiping out more than 10% of the state’s population, the deadliest year on record. The unusually high mortality rate for the threatened mammals has continued into 2022, with 562 deaths in the first five months.
Continue reading...Liberal Democrats condemn ‘environment scandal’ as party releases figures compiled from Environment Agency data
Untreated sewage was discharged into England’s coastal bathing waters for more than 160,000 hours last year, according to figures collated by the Liberal Democrats to mark the start of the summer sea-swimming season.
Data compiled by the party using Environment Agency figures on 2021 discharges shows that water companies released raw sewage 25,000 times into designated bathing waters off the English coast.
Continue reading...Is it hoped discovery of medieval trading town Ravenser Odd can teach people about perils of climate crisis
Hopes are high that a fabled medieval town known as “Yorkshire’s Atlantis” is about to be located and will begin giving up secrets held for more than 650 years.
Ravenser Odd was a prosperous port town built on sandbanks at the mouth of the Humber estuary before it was abandoned and later destroyed and submerged by a calamitous storm in 1362.
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