Walton-on-the-Naze - The Naze Protection Society Campaign

Local Environmental Pressure Group Action - the story so far...

To the north of the seaside town of Walton lie the crumbling red crag cliffs that define the edge of the Naze Peninsular. Great chunks of coastal cliffs periodically fall into the sea. They have no protection and the sea is a relentless adversary.

Just another hopeless story about the vanishing East Coast shoreline?

No! Not if we have anything to do about it!

We are the NAZE PROTECTION SOCIETY - a fund raising and campaigning group with charitable status, lobbying at local and national level for a realistic solution to the problems of large-scale coastal erosion.

For the past thirty years voluntary groups like us - with a passionate concern for the environment - have been making efforts to save the Naze from erosion. Results have been few and hard fought for. These have included a petition of over 10,000 signatures and a representation to the Prime Minister of the time, Margaret Thatcher, followed by several schemes with goverment approval that have been challenged by English Nature - the government's watchdog on national nature matters - never to get past the planning stage. In the late 90's there was, finally, agreement on a scheme comprising three hard rock groynes as protection.

Although further research proved that the plans were flawed, the funding earmarked for some kind of coastal defences 'failed to materialise' after changes in elected local government representation resulted in a political decision not to support the conservation plans of its predecessors.

A dichotomy has always existed regarding the future of the Naze. The cliff face strata and the fossils therein are an international geological reference, the preservation of which conflicts with attempts to protect it with coastal defences. The Backwaters - that they protect - is a designated conservation site. The Naze itself is a beauty spot supporting important plants and migrating birds. Conflicting interests from English Nature (preservation) and Tendring District Council (protection) have resulted in a frustrating stalemate.

The Naze Protection Society, working as an environmental pressure group, finds itself in the delicate role of mediator, attempting to bring compromise to the decision making process and to coax the bureaucratic powers-that-be into cohesive action for the good of the local community.

Whilst continuing to persuade the authorities to reach agreement on a universally acceptable coastal defence scheme, The Naze Protection Society is actively fund raising and intends applying for grants and/or national lottery monies in a practical effort to progress the situation - where time is increasingly becoming 'of the essence'...

The Society produces a periodic newsletter, NAZE NEWS, that updates progress made, and runs a charity trust shop in Walton Town High Street that is currently the main source of fundraising income.

The shop stocks - among other things - the best-selling and highly informative, "THE EROSION OF THE NAZE" - a six-page fact pack descibing the fifty-million-year geological evolution of the Naze illustrated with three full-colour historical maps. The pack - highly sought after by geography students - was updated in May 2006 and retails for Ł2.00, which barely covers the cost of production!

Alternatively, the pack can be obtained by post from the Naze Protection Society Chairman, David Gager, at his address below.

[The Naze Tower also stocks the pack during the summer season.]

Another recent fund raising innovation introduced by the charity trust shop is the SOUVENIR SHARK TEETH FOSSIL PACK. These retail for a very reasonable Ł1.00 and each contains a selection of fossil teeth found locally on the beaches at Walton-on-the-Naze.

At financial year-end (April 2007) total net funding stood at Ł175,000. Gross income for the financial year 2006/7 was Ł32,277.

87p in every pound goes towards our fight to save the Naze from destruction. The 13% of gross income that constitutes expenses is mostly incurred through running costs of the charity shop.

Donations are always welcome and will receive a personal acknowledgement. Cheques should be made out to 'The Naze Protection Society'. They can be sent to the Charity Chairman:

Telephone 01255 676868

...or to the Charitable Trust Shop:

Naze Protection Society Fundraising Shop

The shop is open every morning and during the afternoon on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Donations, in kind, of good quality clothing, books and bric-a-brac are always welcome during opening hours.

[Charity FUNDS & OBJECTIVES are detailed in the first 'further information' link at the bottom of this page]

Time is Running Out after Years of Neglect

The Naze is a contiguous part of Walton-on-the-Naze, a seaside town on the East Coast of England lying some 70 miles northeast of London. It is an area of natural beauty in the form of a 'nose' surrounded by water on three sides, protecting Hamford Water to the west which is a UK and European (EC Directive 79/409) conservation site. To the East is the North Sea, to the north Harwich harbour and the entrances to the rivers Stour and Orwell.

The cliffs facing the North Sea are around 70 feet at their highest reducing down to sea level at the northern end. The cliffs themselves are a UK designated site of special scientific interest exposing a geological history going back over 50 million years. They are eroding at a rate of approximately two metres a year and The Naze Protection Society, a registered charitable trust, is attempting to at least get this rate reduced.

Between 1977 and 1985 - before the Naze Protection Society was established as a charitable trust in 1997 - our predecessors had put forward several proposals - comprising a combination of revetments and groynes - to protect about 1200 yards of shoreline.

The 1977 scheme comprised a 19-groyne plan which was granted planning application but turned down a year later when the Secretary of State of an environmentally short-sighted government proclaimed that ‘resources must be directed to urban areas’.

Needless to say, a much-modified and brutally cost effective version was again summarily dismissed in 1980.

The final ‘pared down’ scheme proposed in 1985 would have cost Ł700k had it been acted upon - and would have probably saved nearly an acre of land that has been subsequently lost. It consisted of 9 groynes, revetment wall, and beach replenishment. Alas, in 1986 the then Nature Conservancy (later to become known as English Nature) - intransigent and all-powerful as ever - objected, despite the the scheme being favourably received at the time by the Department of the Environment. In fact, Margaret Thatcher (PM at the time) even signed a letter agreeing that the work should be done!

The Naze cliffs remain naked and dangerously vulnerable to the relentless onslaught of the North Sea. Without a protective beach, nothing can stop the scouring action of the sea, which, although small in relation to the rotational slumping that causes the cliff erosion, is the fundamental reason why that slumping happens in the first place. The beach takes the energy out of the wave action and slows down the formation of the erosive wave-cut platform with its destructive and irreversible undercutting of the base of the cliff.

The Victorians knew the value of a stable beach and built a strong set of thirty wooden groynes or breakwaters ending northwards at the Tamarisk Wall. The wall was built at the northern end because they realised that for a distance of two kilometres from the Tower the prevailing long shore drift moves uniquely in a northerly direction. Unchecked, sand would simply drift into the open sea north of the Naze, called Pennyhole Bay.

The Victorian groynes not only slowed down erosion but even allowed material to build up – thus gaining land! With the decay of these Victorian sea defences since the Second World War, the sand has resumed its inexorable northward drift allowing acres of unprotected coastline to be lost to the effects of erosion.

Post-war problems were further exacerbated in the 1953 floods, which finally breached the Tamarisk Wall after it had stood valiantly against all comers for over three quarters of a century.

To add insult to injury, in 1959 the then Essex Rivers Catchment Board dismantled what remained of the Tamarisk Wall and shipped it all down to Jaywick for hard point construction! It is generally accepted by experts that this single action was the trigger that has resulted in most of the sand being subsequently removed from the base of the Naze cliffs, and in massive reductions to sand spits to seaward, including those of Pye Sand itself.

As to shoreline land loss, it is also generally accepted that between 1950 and 1959 over 100 metres width of sand dunes were lost from the northern part of the Naze Promontory.

The northern tip of the Naze promontory ends in a slender finger of soft sand ironically called Stone Point. It is a low-lying point, hardly visible from out to sea, although for navigational purposes it marks the eastern side of the Walton Channel and the southern side of the entrance to Hamford Water - both key waterways in the creeks and islands that make up the Walton Backwaters.

Therein lies Stone Point’s strategic significance, for its size is almost in contradiction to its geographical importance: without this vulnerable land mass the Backwaters would become a sea and the town would be at grave risk from storm tide flooding.

Over the past century or so the outline of the coast has receded remorselessly under the onslaught of the sea - a period of loss of coastline that coincides almost exactly with the decay of the Victorian beach groyns that once stoutly buttressed the whole of the Naze peninsula - even north of the Tamarisk Wall.

In a desperate attempt to avert impending disaster, in 1999 huge quantities of sand and gravel - from dredging operations in the Harwich Harbour ship channel - were deposited on the beach around the Stone Point area to build up the cumulative effects of land attrition. Today those deposits have all but eroded away by the sea, leaving the point once again in a highly vulnerable condition in the opening years of the new millenium.

The northerly tidal currents which dominate this particular part of the coastline have simply carried sand back into Pennyhole Bay - which spans the coastline between the Backwaters and Harwich - and from there slowly back into the very big ship channel from which it was so recently dredged, thus turning it into a huge undersea sand sump!

The Naze Protection Society regards the situation today as critical. Unless decisive action is taken very soon to give the existing beach at Stone Point some substance and stability, its unprotected vulnerability will ultimately cause catastrophic problems for the Walton Backwaters and, indeed, the very town itself!

[Minutes from the latest ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Naze Protection Society can be accessed from the third 'further information' link at the bottom of this page]

LATEST! - 2005/6 Heritage Lottery Bid to Save the Naze Cliffs from Destruction

Spring 2005 - Naze Protection Society officials are preparing to submit the charity’s appeal for Ł800,000 of lottery money in a vital bid to prevent Naze cliff protection plans from floundering.

Tendring councillors have agreed to use this money, together with the charity’s own resources – some Ł120,000 at present – to build an ambitious protective construction. The council has further agreed to maintain complete management control of the entire cliff protection project for years to come.

The project includes the building of a four metre wide path - in essence a public viewing platform - along the top of a massive shoreline revetment in front of the cliff face.

The charity has agreed to the funding package with the council for the sake of the long-term environmental security of the crumbling cliffs.

This agreement has come about after years of fruitless negotiations with English Nature - the all-powerful body for environmental matters - during which officials remained intransigent on methods put forward for protecting the fossil-rich Naze cliffs.

Now, at last, with this particular scheme, they have finally allowed coastal defences of the Naze Cliffs to go ahead!

The council and the charity are working together in a new found spirit of cooperation that has been lacking up to now.

In recent years Tendring District Council has been known to change its financial decisions at the last minute.

In the late ‘90’s labour councillors ‘re-directed’ a large part of a half million pound fund - previously earmarked for cliff protection work - to the construction of a multi-storey car park in Clacton.

Then, just two years ago, rescue plans that had been featured on the front page of local papers were scuppered when the council announced that there was no longer any money available for this new work.

During the past few months intensive talks have been going on between Society chairman, David Gager and the council official responsible for coastal work, John Ryan, in an effort to ensure an understanding of the urgency of implementation for this joint venture that finally offers lasting protection for the Naze cliffs.

UPDATE - September 2005

After eight years of tireless campaigning, the Naze Protection Society has finally brought together all parties involved in saving the Naze to agree to a set timetable of action in order to move forward the Revetment Project.

They met together for the first time as a Project Partnership Group on 23rd. September 2005, at which it was decided to produce a preliminary proposal document that will pave the way for a funding bid to raise the Ł800,000 needed for the construction work.

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 (Royal Haskoning) has agreed to produce the preliminary document by the end of October 2005.

January 2006 - "AWARDS FOR ALL" LOTTERY BID SUCCESS!

<<Saving the Naze from relentless destruction through sea erosion was never going to be easy...>>

With this thought in mind, the tenacious group of local environmentalists who eight long years ago formed the charitable trust, The Naze Protection Society, are today a somewhat happier band of campaigners, for they have finally landed a significant public grant of funding aid from the ‘Awards for All’ Lottery Fund.

The award is for Ł5,000, which is the maximum sum available from this particular source. The money has been allocated specifically to part-fund an Inception Report that has been commissioned by the charity through engineering consultants Royal Haskoning. This preliminary work will be the vital first stage towards the implementation of Tendring District Council’s sea wall revetment plans designed to protect the crumbling Naze cliffs and prevent local landmark, the Naze Tower, from falling into the sea.

The Naze Protection Society had agreed with TDC to fund the Ł800.000 project through charitable donations and further direct grant appeals. At present the charity has in excess of Ł140,000 in funds, which have been raised mainly through donations from its charity shop in Walton High Street.

‘Clearly, we still have along way to go’, said David Gager, the charity’s Chairman, ‘but further grant bids are in the pipeline. We are tremendously grateful for the generosity that has already been shown by our supporters and are optimistic that our target will be reached’.

Before committing its funds in commissioning the report, The Naze Protection Society awaits the formal green light from the Tendring District Council’s Cabinet.

The agreement to produce the Inception Report - that will pave the way for the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment and planning permission - was made at an all-party Project Partnership Meeting last September. At that meeting, representatives from Tending District Council and English Nature agreed to the go-ahead of the scheme with the cooperation of the environmental negotiating arm of the Essex Wildlife Trust and the practical expertise of consulting engineers, Royal Haskoning.

Tendring District Council’s technical department produced the plans for the project in 2004. Pending planning permission and successful fundraising, work on the revetment is expected to start in the autumn of 2007.

Cash donations for the project can be made to the charity through their shop at 18 High Street. Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex CO14 8BH. Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Naze Protection Society’.

April 2006 - NAZE CLIFF HERITAGE PROJECT IS LAUNCHED

Local environmental charity, The Naze Protection Society, has launched a Cliff Heritage Project that it hopes will attract successful fundraising from charitable sources - like the Heritage Lottery Fund - and from large commercial corporations.

It is calling its fundraising initiative ‘CRAG WALK – a stroll through prehistory’ and aims to concentrate its resources on providing a visitor-friendly walkway along the base of the world famous red crag cliffs that border the Naze Public Open Space on its North Sea side.

For the first time the two million year old fossil beds will become accessible for viewing at all stages of the tide. Pending approval, CRAG WALK will be built in cooperation with Tendring District Council, which has drawn up plans for a protective rock revetment to prevent further collapse of the crumbling cliff face.

Information about CRAG WALK will be on display at Walton Public Library throughout the months of April, May and June. The library has kindly loaned the charity a display board for this purpose.

The charity has agreed with the Council to endeavour to raise the finance required for the project that will extend current coastal protection by a further 200 metres northwards.

The walkway will have comprehensive weatherproof information boards that will graphically describe prehistoric environments and their climatic conditions, recount the massive effects of the ice age on the present day local landscape, and illustrate the unique range of fossils that can be found in the red crag strata. The charity plans to provide facilities for disabled access via the Sunny Point coach drop-off area.

The go-ahead for the CRAG WALK Cliff Heritage Project depends upon the agreement of Tendring District Council Cabinet.

Naze Protection Society Charity Chairman, David Gager, said, ’This is an exciting and imaginative project that will make our unique maritime heritage available to all who visit the Naze’.

He stated, ‘We are looking forward to receiving the green light from Tendring District Council, who will provide the technical know-how that will bring our heritage project to fruition.’

‘It is up to us as an environmental charity to provide the funding for the public access platform. We are making steady progress here, and look forward to starting work on CRAG WALK within the next two or three years’.

The Naze Protection Society became a charity nine years ago but was only recently able to reach planning agreement with the Council and with the government’s nature agency, English Nature, after a long and hard-fought campaign.

Donations towards CRAG WALK can be sent - or handed in - to the charity’s shop at 18 Walton High Street – cheques should be made payable to ‘The Naze Protection Society’.

May 2006 - CORPORATE FUNDING APPEAL

David Gager, Chairman of The Naze Protection Society, has written an open letter to all members of the public who have offered him and his charity loyal support throughout the ups and downs of nine years of fundraising and campaigning. With the breakthrough that is finally emerging - like a glimmer of light at the end of a very long bureaucratic tunnel - he feels that an appeal for corporate funds is timely.

To fund the CRAG WALK Heritage Project, we need in excess of Ł800,000 of which the Society now has nearly Ł150,000, most of which was generated through our Charity Shop.

Public support has been wonderful! We certainly want this support to continue and we certainly need your personal donation, however small!

Now, we are also looking to corporate organisations and seek your assistance in identifying any that might support our cause. It was from a recommendation of one of our supporters that Ł50 was sent recently from the Yorkshire Building Society. We are looking towards generating many more examples of this generosity.

So, what can you do to make this happen?

Well, you could ask your employer if they have a scheme for charity giving. Many do because they are tax deductible - and some company profits can then go to charity rather than to Gordon Brown!

Certainly, we have embarked on an ambitious funding quest for heritage preservation. I hope, now that this quest has begun, that I can count on your support for the challenge that lies ahead to render its successful completion.

THE NAZE PROTECTION SOCIETY

June 2006 - TENDRING DISTRICT COUNCIL SUPPORT

A letter of support for the Naze Protection Society's CRAG WALK Naze cliff heritage project has been received by Society Chairman, David Gager, from Tendring District Council's Head of Technical Services, John Ryan.

This letter is understood to be a vital contribution towards the credibility of the charity's bid for project funding and is anticipated to be the first of many such supportive documents from partnership organisations.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - 2006

The Naze Protection Society will hold its ninth public AGM on Friday, 11th. August at the Red Triangle Club (YMCA Hall) in Portobello Road, Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex.

The meeting will start prompt at 7.30pm. Members of the public are most welcome.

[For AGM Minutes, see LINK 3 below]

August 2006 - CARNIVAL FLOAT

The Naze Protection Society, the local environmental charity dedicated to saving the crumbling Naze cliffs and Naze Tower from destruction through sea erosion, launches a new fundraising initiative: ‘Sponsor a Rock’, at Walton’s Carnival this Saturday, as part of its bid to transform the CRAG WALK Cliff Heritage Project from the drawing board to reality.

The Naze Protection Society is endeavouring to raise the money required for the project – estimated at more than Ł800,000. While current financial resources stand at Ł150,000, the charity expects to attract substantial grants from major sponsors like the Heritage Lottery Fund and commercial corporations. Diageo, the drinks conglomerate, has already contributed close on Ł1,000 to the charity. Other sponsors to date include ‘Awards for All’ and Yorkshire Building Society.

Saturday’s event aims to encourage the general public to get involved in a practical way by sponsoring the rocks that will ultimately build the walkway in front of the Naze cliffs. The charity will have a carnival float on which the first rock for CRAG WALK will be ’on parade’.

The rock itself costs about Ł300 and we are asking people to sponsor this and subsequent rocks to the tune of Ł25. In return we will issue a personalised certificate of thanks to the donor. The certificates could make an evocative gift for those with an inherent love of Walton-on-the-Naze and its Backwaters – for birthdays, anniversaries - or ‘In Memoriam’ for visitors to the area who have since passed away.

Naze Protection Society Charity Chairman, David Gager, said, ’The ‘Sponsor a Rock’ promotion is an opportunity for Naze enthusiasts to show their support for our campaign to preserve the maritime heritage of this significant part of the north Essex coastline in a very practical way”.

The Naze Protection Society has recently forged partnership links with key personnel within Tendring District Council. Written agreements have been received from John Ryan, Head of Technical Services, and Council Cabinet Member, Harry Shearing. These links will drive forward the implementation of the CRAG WALK Heritage Walkway that will preserve a section of the crumbling Red Crag of the Naze Cliffs for public viewing and will extend from Tower Groyne northwards. Plans to incorporate this cliff project were first drawn up by the Council in 2004.

The Red Crag contains unique fossils that show evidence of the cooling of the Earth’s surface prior to the last Ice Age. The cliffs are designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The proposed walkway, complete with graphic weatherproof information boards, will provide tide-free access to coastal heritage awareness for visitors to the Naze, hitherto unavailable up to now.

Further letters of positive support for the project are expected soon from Dr Chris Gibson for English Nature and from John Neale, Area Representative for English Heritage.

Ł25 ‘Sponsor a Rock’ donations towards the building of CRAG WALK can be sent to the Naze Protection Society, Haven House, Walton-on-the-Naze, CO14 8LF - or handed in to the charity’s shop at 18 Walton High Street. Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Naze Protection Society’.

October 2006 - COUNCIL CABINET SUPPORTS CRAG WALK

Meeting on the evening of Wednesday, 25th October, Tendring District Council's Cabinet voted to support the concept of the Naze Protection Society's CRAG WALK Heritage Project and provide technical assistance towards its development and fulfilment.

There is light at the end of the tunnel...

Spring 2007 - CHARITY TO ORGANISE CAR BOOT SALES

Local environmental charity, the Naze Protection Society, has launched an important new fundraising initiative for its CRAG WALK Naze Cliff Heritage Project.

It is to run regular car boot sales on the premises of - and in arrangement with - the Martello Caravan Park.

The inaugural event will commence on Good Friday, 6th April at 9.00am and remain open until 1.00 pm. Parking and admission will be free. Table spaces will cost Ł7.50 and sellers are welcome from 7.00am. Telephone enquiries should be made on 07833 161656.

The charity is requesting ‘no caterers’ - full refreshments are being provided by the park organisers.

The Naze Protection Society expects that the revenue generated by the car boot sales will add valuable funds towards the achievement of its target for CRAG WALK.

[Read more NAZE NEWS about the CRAG WALK Heritage Project from the second 'further information' link at the bottom of this page]

Summer 2007 - STRONGER LOCAL TIES COULD BROKER SUCCESS

At their 2007 Annual General Meeting [LINK 3 below] held in early August at the Red Triangle Club in Walton's Portobello Road, Naze Protection Society Chairman, David Gager, made the following statement in his Chaiman's Report:

"As a result of the need to show Crag Walk as part of a greater plan for the development and regeneration of the Naze, the Society is in the process of including the Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT) as partners for the project alongside Tendring District Council. EWT have significant experience in other parts of Essex in similar schemes to fund the regeneration of natural environments. With their help and partnership, it is hoped to make faster progress to achieve our goal."

This is an encouraging development that should facilitate the on-going negotiations with Natural England and English Heritage in an effort to speed up the process of agreement over the way forward for future environmental protection of the unique Naze location.

Further Information Links