Members of the CCRG continued to meet with the NNDC to discuss the Coastwise initiative and take part in the various meetings to inform the resultant adaptation plan. These meetings were both in person interviews, submitted documents and engagement events with consultants Jacobs.
In October CCRG submitted written evidence to The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee's investigation into Coastal Erosion and Landslips. See here for the submission.
For the last year the CCRG have been piloting a sand dune retention experiment with marram grass planting. 80 marram grass plugs were planted at the far end of the 'big bay' on Happisburgh Beach where the dunes and pre existing marram grass survive the winters and the heavy storms. This area of the beach naturally extends the dunes and the grass albeit slowly. We decided to plant the grass plugs to see if we could extend the existing stable area.
We found that over half the plugs have survived (and grown) during the dry summer and the harsh winter. We learnt from this that the best planting areas were at the very base of the cliff which benefit from ground water seepage and protection. Also it was evident that an even better chance of survival and growth of the plugs would be if they were planted when they were a little more mature.
We identified that there were two further stable large outcrops of clay further towards the village that might be suitable for grass planting as they afforded sufficient protection and were already showing surviving plant life.
Our next stage will be to upscale our planting with a considerably more grass plugs which are much more mature. We are hoping to engage the village in both nurturing the plugs in their gardens until they are ready for planting and to have 'community planting sessions'.
We believe that the evidence sited around the world that dune retention is an effective way to slow down cliff erosion seems to be robust and worth exploring here at Happisburgh.