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Coastal Heritage: Naze Protection Society News - Recent Events
Review Page 2 - Recent News from The Naze Protection Society Newsletter
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NAZE HERITAGE SCHEME
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CLIFF WORKING
GROUPS FORM
PROJECT
PARTNERSHIP
A Project Partnership has been formed to manage the progress of the proposed Naze revetment scheme.      
   They met for the first time on 23rd. September, [2005] when it was decided to produce a preliminary proposal document that will pave the way for a funding bid to raise the £800,000 needed for the urgent work to begin.    
   Present at the meeting were Bob Howell for Tendring District Council (construction), Chris Gibson for English Nature (conservation), Neil Harvey for Essex Wildlife Trust (local negotiations), Tim Ellingham for Royal Haskoning (engineering consultants) and five members of the Naze Protection Society committee.      
   Tim Ellingham of Royal Haskoning agreed to produce the preliminary proposal document by the end of October 2005.
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NAZE CLIFF REVETMENT PLAN
COUNCIL PRESENTS NEW SCHEME
Tendring District Council unveiled their latest plans to protect coastal property near the Naze cliffs from sea erosion at a crowded Annual General Meeting of local environmental charity - The Naze Protection Society – on a sultry summer evening last August.
    The Red Triangle Club hall was filled to capacity as John Ryan, Head of Technical Services for the council, presented the proposal to build a protective sea wall (revetment) that will shield the cliffs from further wave damage and protect property to the rear - including the site of the proposed ‘Living Naze’ project - from ultimately falling into the sea.
    After briefly outlining the scheme, Mr. Ryan answered questions from the floor. Regarding cost, he said that the 100-metre wall would need £800,000 in order to pay for the construction. The alternative idea (favoured by many) of reconstructing the old wooden beach groynes, was dismissed as too expensive, although it was unclear as to whether Mr. Ryan was referring to traditional wood or to the much more expensive concrete alternative.
    Mr. Ryan admitted that the council has no money for the necessary capital outlay needed to establish the revetment. Instead, agreement has been reached with the Naze Protection Society Charitable Trust to raise the money, either from charitable donations or through direct grant appeals.
    The council’s role, once the revetment had been completed, would be that of ‘caretaker’. Every five years or so they have agreed to extend the structure by about eight metres to prevent sea erosion from occurring at the open end of thewall while at the same time tracking the line of the cliffs as the unprotected part retreated further inland. In this way, the protection afforded by the revetment will be extended in a generally north-westerly direction over time.
    Mr. Ryan explained that the main reason for a roadway on top of the revetment was to allow access for the light machinery needed in order to keep the protected cliffs clear of vegetation. This will enable the fossil-rich red crag layers to be continually exposed for scientific purposes - as demanded by the national body for the environment, English Nature.
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BACKWATERS - SURVIVAL AT RISK
The world-renowned Walton Backwaters – that comprises such well-loved names as Hamford Water, Kirby Creek and The Wade – is under threat from rising sea levels.
      Recent celebrations to mark World Wetlands Day highlighted the problems facing this Site of Special Scientific Interest that has also been classified an English Nature Reserve.
      Immortalised by the children’s author Arthur Ransome in his best selling book, “Secret Water”, the Backwaters are fast disappearing as a natural salt marsh – for years the winter sanctuary for brent geese, avocets and its seal colony.
      Scientific studies have calculated that nearly a quarter of the 5000-acre site has been eroded in the past 30 years!
      Work on future harbour development at Harwich could cause further problems as could the continuing loss of beach material at the strategic Stone Point that marks the northern tip of The Naze.
      The protection of the Naze promontory is a pivotal part of the security for the future of the Walton Backwaters. The Naze Protection Society is working with all possible speed to negotiate a plan that will give the area - including the vulnerable town and 70 foot cliffs – a safe future.
      Essex Estuarine Strategies is the organisation responsible for Backwaters flood risk defence management. It recently launched a website and will begin a sustainable long-term plan for the protection of Hamford Water (summer 2005).
CLIFF GRADING MEANS
LOSS OF ‘LINKS  CAFÉ’
According to council blueprints, the Links Café will not survive the grading of the Naze cliffs when the proposed revetment is built to stabilize the cliff face into a 1 in 4 ‘graded’ slope.    
   This is because the newly established cliff slope will extend further inland than the present cliff edge - far enough, in fact, to undermine the foundations of the Links Café and cause it to collapse.    
   The Tower stands just far enough inland to clear the edge of the graded slope, so it should be secure for the forseeable future.
   However, any significant planning delays to construction work could  jeopardise the safety of this famous grade 2* listed monument also, according to the latest information from Naze Protection Society charity officials.
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NPS TO RESTORE FADING PRAISE PLAQUE
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The Society is to restore the writing on the Praise Plaque that is located on the Naze public open space and seen by thousands of visitors every year.
      The Praise Plaque is one of many throughout the world that have been erected by the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary of Darmstadt-Eherstadt, Germany
      In the summer of 2000 the charity - mindful of its responsibility for the protection of features associated with the Naze - organised its relocation because it was then in a dangerous position only yards from the cliff edge.
      When they heard of the Society's intention to move the plaque to a safer spot, the Sisterhood donated a second plaque that was embedded into the stone plinth. Some of the wording is now in need of attention.
Historical note:
After it had been moved, a re-dedication service took place at the end of September 2000, at which around thirty people attended, including the Mayor of Walton.
      The founder of the Sisterhood, Sister M. Basilea Schlink, thought of the idea of Praise Plaques to contrast against the horror and atrocities of WWII
      The plaques are specifically located at sites of natural beauty as symbols of our appreciation for the world in which we live.
MORE CLIFF LOSSES AFTER SPRING RAINS
The atrocious weather from February [2005] – rain, snow and an easterly wind-driven swell - has now taken its toll on the vulnerable Naze Cliffs.
    In the worst rotational slumping for more than a year, at least twenty square metres of land have been lost just north of the Tower in a two-fold collapse that subsequently occurred, mainly in the 3 months that followed.
    Even if the council’s planned revetment defence scheme had been in place, no protection would have been offered since this part of the cliffs – although near the Naze Tower – is ‘out of range’ of the 200-metre construction that the Naze Protection Society intends to fund.
    Local observers have noted that further collapses took place as recently as April, bringing with them the threat of damaging mudslides if the weather turns very wet again.
This is because the underlying ground is made up of impervious clay and the surface water cannot readily drain down into it.
Instead, it washes the softer red crag and sand layers above it on to the beach - in a mudslide. There, the tide carries the material away, since there are no beach groynes in place to retain it. [Erosion Information Pack available here]
May 2005:
two-fold collapse north of the Tower  
NAZE
NEWS
Praise Plaque Re-dedication - September 2000
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~ Save the Naze for Future Days ~
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Naze Protection Society
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