Cley - Salthouse summary

Cley lies towards the eastern end of the North Norfolk Coast CHaMP. It consists of a shingle ridge with an area of coastal grazing marsh, reedbeds, and an unusual transition to landward from saline lagoons, through brackish habitats to freshwater. The shingle ridge provides the main line of defence and has been maintained by the Environment Agency who 'push-up' material from both the beach and the landward side to increase the height of the ridge. This operation is perceived to have reduced the flood risk to the wildlife habitats, the villages of Cley and Salthouse and a main road. Due to a decrease in the availability of beach material, partly resulting from this intervention, this management approach was considered to be largely unsustainable. As a result a sea defence scheme was devised to construct a secondary line of defence and to restore the shingle ridge to a more natural and effective profile. The scheme relied on attempting to preserve the habitats in situ. However, it has been argued this not only runs counter to natural processes, but may have led to a scheme being proposed that was potentially damaging to the nature conservation interests in the area (Murby 2002). Following a review of the scheme and discussions with the European Commission it has been de-coupled from the "Living with the Seas" project.

[Note: A more detailed review of this scheme is provide in a separate report, The Cley-Salthouse realignment - a summary appraisal.]

Caption: Location of the Cley-Salthouse managed realignment scheme within the North Norfolk Coast site. The shingle ridge and associated habitats including saltmarsh and coastal grazing marsh are indicated. The approximate area of land flooded in 1996 is also shown, click on this area for more information about the proposed scheme.

Comment: Saline lagoons present in the area flooded in 1996 were damaged during the reconstruction of the shingle ridge.

References

Murby, P. 2002. Why do we pay so much to protect wildlife from nature. Coastal Futures Conference.