Coastal Protection (Hansard, 7 March 1990)

§ Mr. Colvin
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps are being taken by his Ministry to ensure co-ordination in coastal protection work between Departments, along the lines of the steps being taken by the standing conference on the problems associated with the coastline to co-ordinate coastal protection works between neighbouring local authorities on the south coast.

§ Mr. Maclean
The Departments involved in policy matters relating to coastal defence work are my Department in England and the respective territorial Departments.
It is recognised that there are other associated issues such as those relating to nature conservation, tourism, aggregate extraction and so on. Many of these matters will be addressed in submissions of proposed coast protection work or through the existing system of consultation. In addition, any such issues which might have more general implications for the defence of the coastline are kept under regular review.
708W
It is encouraging that groups of authorities concerned with both coast protection and sea defence are discussing these matters together. Such groups, and the standing conference is a good example, have the advantage of a wider perspective of the coastal environment than is possible for the individual authorities. My regional engineers also have a co-ordinating role when discussing potential coast protection and sea defence schemes with the authorities and my Department is grant-aiding research studies of coastal processes with a view to identifying appropriate solutions for defence of stretches of the coastline.

§ Mr. Colvin
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the sources of grant aid available from his Ministry for work on coastal protection and sea defences including details of the amounts to be paid during 1989–90 and 1990–91.

§ Mr. Maclean
The Department makes available grant aid for the construction of capital works of coast protection and sea defence. In 1989–90 the total grant available for coastal protection and sea defence work is £28 million. In 1990–91 the total available is expected to be over £33 million.
Further increases in grant are planned for 1991–92 and 1992–93. The needs of authorities undertaking coast protection and sea defence works are kept regularly under review.

§ Mr. Colvin
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to streamline the procedures in respect of the statutory consultations required under the Coast Protection Act 1949 for grant-aiding coast protection work and sea defences.

§ Mr. Maclean
Under the Coast Protection (Notices) Regulations 1950, a coast protection authority must publish notice of proposed coast protection schemes and serve like notice on interested parties such as the county council, fisheries organisations and neighbouring coast protection authorities. In addition, my Department consults a small number of other bodies, such as the Nature Conservancy Council. Such representations or objections as may be made are already handled as quickly as possible, but our procedures are nevertheless under continuous review.