Environment/Flood Risk

In these times of dwindling countryside and fast pace of living our natural heritage has become all the more valuable. The natural beauty of Cornwalls' coves and coastline are among the reasons why it is loved by locals and draws tourists in their thousands. Setting a precedent of building on beaches seems to run counter not only to current environmental thinking but also against very reason why tourists visit the county.

As you can see from these pictures taken by a local resident, the risk of flooding is a very real threat. In fact, Carlyon Bay Beach has been flooded at regular intervals within recent living memory.

Government Flood Warning Report Shows Folly Of Beach Development

A report published in May 2004 by Sir David King, the Government's Chief Scientist, highlights the folly of the proposed beach development.. The report, produced by Sir David and a panel of sixty experts, makes clear that the likelihood of flooding and coastal erosion in Cornwall and similar parts of the UK has been seriously underestimated. The map indicating areas at risk clearly shows that parts of Cornwall such as St.Austell Bay are in the danger zone.

The report provides strong evidence supporting our repeated concerns about the risk of flooding at the site of the proposed Ampersand development and reinforces our alarm that that the proposed mile long sea wall at Carlyon Bay will have an adverse knock-on effect upon the Par River estuary and the St.Blazey Flood-Plain.

Read the full report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3648391.stm

In response to concern expressed at the planning meeing on April 22nd 2003, Restormel Borough Council did receive a report commissioned on behalf of Ampersand by Jacksons Civil Engineering entitled 'Coastal Protection Flood Risk Assessment' by H.R Wallingford.

It explores aspects of the Sea Wall construction, but does not constitute the full Environmental Flood Risk Assessment requested by English Nature and Friends of the Earth at that time.

In October 2003 a member of CarlyonBayWatch with expert knowledge on the subject, Mr Alan Francis, obtained a copy of the Wallingford Report and analysed it. He prepared a thorough and well informed response in which he questions many aspects of the report and highlights a number of serious omissions which could have disastrous repercussions for the stability of the beach and the buildings proposed on it. Read his findings here.

As Britains coastal waters threaten to rise with global warming, it is our opinion that the extant planning permission, granted in 1988, under a different set of environmental conditions, but upon which the current Ampersand Proposals are based, would not be granted today.

The result of the Planning Committees recent decision appears to be that over 90% of Crinnis Beach will be covered with a high density of buildings and concrete. The implementation of the Consent, granted without the benefit of either an Environmental Impact Assessment or a Flood Risk Assessment has serious and long term implications. It was granted in the teeth of the strongest possible advice from County Highways about the serious traffic problems which will ensue and will mean that well over a mile of natural Cornish coastline will be lost for ever.

As a response to this, CarlyonBayWatch have registered an application to have the beaches registered as Village Green to preserve their role as an area for local leisure and recreational activity for more than the last 20 years.