Application made to save Pagham homes

Properties are now just metres away from the sea because of coastal erosion.

An £850,000 bid to reverse the scouring of the beach was submitted last week.

But plans to cut into the large shingle bank which has formed at the mouth of the harbour still face major obstacles, with the spit itself protected along with birds that now nest there.

And long-term campaigners have warned that even if the application is approved, work won’t start until next year when it could be too late for some.

“At the worst point, where there’s less than ten metres of beach left, if we had a bad winter almost certainly you’d lose houses,” said Robin Henderson, chairman of the Pagham flood defence steering group.

“The fact that the beach is so thin now, it could easily come over the top and affect businesses as well.”

Mr Henderson said the lives of the elderly residents living on the beach estate had been made a ‘misery’ because they were living in fear and can’t sell their homes.

He and Pagham Parish Council chairman Ray Radmell were part of a group which travelled up to London with Bognor MP Nick Gibb last week to discuss funding with DEFRA Secretary of State Liz Truss.

They explained that the Pagham community was on target to raise £250,000 for its share of the project after significant fundraising, but both cllr Radmell and Mr Henderson described the meeting as ‘frustrating’. A follow-up meeting in Pagham with Mr Gibb, Arun District Council and the Environment Agency is set for tomorrow.

It follows the submission of a planning application to cut through the spit and use the shingle to plug the channel which has formed.

Mr Henderson said: “At a stroke you don’t have that large jet of water coming in scouring the beach and you allow the shingle to replenish in an environmentally sensitive way which does the harbour a great deal of good.

“The risk of flooding will also be greatly reduced.

A huge 300-page document has been produced by marine consultants ABPMer in response to concerns raised by Natural England, the Environment Agency, and the RSPB over the protected spit and little tern seabirds which nest on it.

“We have to work with them, and it has involved this huge and lengthy process,” said Mr Henderson. “And what it means is the residents still have to run through another winter of concern before we get to the point of funding.”

Cllr Radmell said the beach erosion was also now affecting Aldwick and if another big storm like in 2008 struck ‘you’d find you’d lose a big area of Pagham’.

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