Southwold: Coastal town could opt for DIY flood defences to protect it from rising sea levels

A coastal town is starting to look at ways to defend itself from being flooded by the sea.

Southwold, along with other coastal towns and villages across Britain, could be hit by ever-rising sea levels.

Flood defence spending plans, which were drawn up before the floods that hit the country over the past few months, introduced partnership funding, gives those in the community more of a say on the defences for their area, in return for paying for some of the construction.

The Government’s website says that partnership funding is a way of allocating capital funding to flood and coastal erosion risk management projects.

Southwold mayor Simon Tobin said: “The town council is looking at all options available for sea defence protection, including the self-trailing arm at the harbour.”

Instead of meeting the full costs of a limited number of schemes, this approach means that the Government can help meet the costs of any scheme it deems worthwhile.

A spokesman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “By changing the way we fund flood defences we have been able to protect more people and properties than ever before.

“Under the new Partnership Funding Scheme, we are able to contribute to far more projects that wouldn’t have got any funding under the old system.”

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: “Securing funding for all forms of flood and coastal risk management, whether it is surface water, river or coastal, is challenging.

“We continue to work closely with all our partners, local communities and businesses to try to find the best solution in any given geographical location.”