Save our Shoreline
Our shoreline needs you!
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Why?
Coastal erosion triggered by manmade environmental damage threatens to breach Slapton Line, severing the vital A379 coast road, and destroying a unique and beautiful wildlife habitat and ecosystem. Rising sea levels will only make this worse. Without comprehensive action now that tackles the underlying causes as well as addressing the symptoms this will inevitably happen.
We can prevent this if we work together to reverse the manmade damage and to harness the natural coastal processes to repair the damage. This will deliver a sustainable solution to the problem and help guard against the additional threat of rising sea levels
Twice in the last century our precious shoreline has made sacrifices for the nation - to extend Plymouth naval docks and to serve as the practice for D Day - it is now time that the nation repaid that sacrifice by reversing the man-made damage and putting it and our communities on a sustainable footing
The Objective
A sustainable solution to stopping, and reversing, the manmade damage caused by the historic dredging of the Skerries Bank to the fragile beach systems of Slapton Line, Torcross, Beesands and Hallsands and to saving Slapton Ley and the A379 coast road.
If you'd like more history and detail read on....
The key to all of this is the Skerries Bank off Start Point.
This initiative is designed to explore and promote a sustainable offshore nature - based solution to the threat posed by coastal erosion. It aims to address the underlying causes - the historic dredging of the Skerries Bank - and to harness natural processes to help protect vulnerable communites, vital infrastructure and the unique ecosystem of a national site of special scientific interest and area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is not a replacement in the immediate term to shoreline defences and protection measures but rather a compliment to them that, if successful, should make them less important in the future, stabilise the situation and begin to reverse some of the damage. Added to this the A379 Slapton coast road is a vital link between Kingsbridge and Dartmouth and its loss would directly affect not only Torcross and Slapton but also dozens of communities further inland.
The Concept.
The concept is a simple one: the underlying problem in terms of longshore drift erosion on this stretch of coastline was triggered by manmade action a century ago which disrupted a closed, balanced coastal ecosystem: the damage should now be repaired by reversing that manmade action a century later.
The Objective.
A sustainable solution to stopping, and reversing, the manmade damage caused by the historic dredging of the Skerries Bank to the fragile beach systems of Slapton Line, Torcross, Beesands and Hallsands and to saving Slapton Ley and the A379 coast road.
How can you help?
There are three main ways which you can help:
Spreading the word!
If you like this webpage please send a link to your friends and family and get them to write or email our MP: together we can make a difference.
Politically
We need you to write to your MP – Caroline Voaden - supporting this and getting him to act (there is a link to a draft as well as the email address to send it to). There is also an online petition to sign.
Financial
As a first step we need to fund an expert study and modelling to make sure the plan will work – see the go fund me link and the description of the study further on.