Parish urges public meeting to assess risk

Pagham Parish Council chairman Cllr Ray Radmall said the serious threat of the sea flooding homes on the Pagham Beach estate meant preventative action was needed now.

He said: 'We must all band together to prevent rather than respond to sea incursion.'

He said Arun District Council's chief executive, Ian Sumnall, should attend a meeting called by the parish council and the residents' associations to explain how they will be kept safe.

The most recent Environment Agency flood mapping shows potential damage to a wide area of Pagham in the worst case of flooding.

The Observer reported last week the fact that the proposed 1m-plus solution to the erosion of the beach in front of East Front Road and West Front Road needs to be the subject of a 120,000 study.

The cabinet of Arun District Council, which is responsible for that part of the seafront, will not spend the cash until it is assured of getting it back from the EA. But the agency is unlikely to consider the matter until spring.

This has raised Cllr Radmall's fears that work to halt the beach's disappearance will fail to start before the winter of 2008 to increase the risk to the most vulnerable properties. He said he was surprised and disturbed at the failure of Arun's cabinet to kickstart the process for work to take place by next autumn.

Once the study has been completed, the EA has to evaluate whether Pagham is a deserving case for government coast protection funding before any flood prevention measures are installed.

A district council spokesman ruled out attending a public meeting. But he said the council had asked the EA to attend the Joint Western Arun Area Committee meeting on January 30.

The parish council was encouraged to join in the talks about how best to protect Pagham.

The meeting was also open to the public. Its venue has yet to be announced.

He stated that Arun had applied for the 120,000 grant from the EA to study the coastline.

'Arun is extremely keen to ensure this issue is kept high on the agency's agenda and move as early as possible to help find a solution to the problem,' he added.