Beverley and Holderness MP, Graham Stuart, today welcomed news that the Environment Agency (EA) has agreed that the case to maintain flood protection for Sunk Island is stronger than they first thought.
People living and working in the low lying, but highly productive, area of Holderness to the east of Hull had been told future plans for flood defences could mean it was going to be lost to the sea as part of a managed realignment of the coastal banks.
But following pressure from both Graham and residents to the proposal in the EA’s Humber Flood Risk Management Strategy, it now appears a number of factors could mean instead the Agency improves and strengthens the existing defences rather than allowing them to be slowly washed away and simply building new, shorter, banks further inland.
Graham said: “I have met with Philip Winn, the Humber Strategies Manager for the EA, who said it appeared the case for protecting Sunk Island was now a lot stronger.
“This is good news but, so far, guarantees nothing. I’ve said all along that the Agency’s valuation of Sunk Island didn’t bear scrutiny and local people have been vocal in calling for a rethink.”
And he added: “Sunk Island was recovered from the sea thanks to the ingenuity and hard work of our forebears. Its soil is some of the most productive in the world: it makes a huge contribution to our food needs and every reasonable effort should be made to protect it.”
Late last year Graham revealed as many as 1,000 homes and 11,500 hectares of land across the East Riding of Yorkshire could be lost if the Humber Flood Risk Management Strategy was implemented.
On Sunk Island alone the Environment Agency estimated 668 properties would have been lost along with thousands of acres of prime agricultural land.
Graham invited and then hosted the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hilary Benn, in the constituency to hear from local representatives and argue strongly against the Agency’s plans.
To highlight the issue further and bring pressure to bear on the Government, Graham applied for and was granted, an adjournment debate in the House of Commons.
Graham used the debate to call on the Government to consider the threat to the supply of much-needed crops during a time of world food shortages.
He told MPs: “Government is preparing itself to abandon thousands of acres of prime farmland at a time of crippling world food shortages.
“Does it not seem both morally wrong and soundly stupid to throw away enormously productive farms such as these?
“If the Government’s commitment to food security is to mean anything, surely they should be uplifting the value of agricultural land. At the moment they are doing the exact opposite. “
To complete the Flood Risk Management Strategy the EA had looked at a ratio of the cost of defending land against the benefit to future generations – it said it felt there would be problems in justifying expenditure for defence on the existing coastline between Paull and Spurn.
Now, however, Mr Winn says that the Agency has done further work on Sunk Island: assessing the state of repair of current flooding defences, working out the costs of strengthening or replacing them and looking at the impact on assets such as utilities and pipelines. He has now also agreed that the value of the land is considerably greater than the figures used when the strategy was first made public.
Graham said, “I’m pleased the latest work looks more positive for Sunk Island but I’m aware that other areas to the East also need further scrutiny if we are to get the complete change in strategy that I and my constituents desire.”
A series of public consultation events are now expected to be held to get the view of residents before the EA makes any further plans for the area.
The Flood Risk Management Strategy, published in March 2008 suggested, maintenance of some defences would be withdrawn affecting areas including Easington, Sunk Island, Hessle, North Ferriby and Brough, with no compensation offered for loss of land or property.
According to the author John Whitehead in his book ‘Sunk Island, the land that rose from the Humber’, in 1560 Sunk Island was just a sand bar off the Holderness coast. By 1660 mud deposited around the sand bar meant it was only covered by water at high tide. In 1668 the process of land reclamation was begun and Sunk Island finally became fully joined to the mainland between 1841 and 1852.
Three public consultation meetings have been arranged. They were due to take place on Monday, May 11 at Hedon Town Hall; Wednesday, May 13 at Skeffling Village Hall and Thursday, May 14 at Sunk Island Village Hall. All three are due to start at 6.30pm.
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