Coastal Management Investigations- Bacton Gas Terminal, Bacton and Walcott.
Public Statement – March 2016
North Norfolk District Council is continuing to work jointly with the operators of Bacton Gas
Terminal and the Environment Agency to investigate opportunities to improve coastal defences
to the gas terminal and provide benefits to the adjacent communities. Discussion is also
underway with The Crown Estate which manages offshore sand resources.
Progress is outlined below:

Investigations have identified that the most appropriate and effective approach for NNDC to
maintain coast protection at the villages is by extending the protection already provided by
the existing defences through supplementing the beaches with the high volumes of sand in
conjunction with the scheme initiated by the operators for the protection of the Bacton Gas
Terminal.

A scheme could be achieved through the placement of sand periodically or through one
‘mega sand recharge’ (termed ‘sandscaping’) which has been trialed successfully by the
Dutch.

Government funds are not available for the protection of the gas terminal, so the operators
are prepared to fund the long term defence of the nationally important terminal through their
own means (subject to internal approvals).

Bacton Gas Terminal in principle is supportive and willing to work in partnership with NNDC
for a joint coastal protection scheme - where the operators protect the Bacton Gas Terminal
and NNDC protects the villages in one project - as they believe that it would be a missed
opportunity for the local community if otherwise.

NNDC continues to seek sufficient funds to complete the joint scheme however, the Bacton
Gas Terminal needs to be protected due to its strategic importance and cannot afford to wait
indefinitely, as such, if sufficient funds cannot be found for NNDC’s scheme then the Bacton
Gas Terminal will proceed with their own protection scheme.

Both the standalone scheme of the Terminal and a possible joint scheme with NNDC will be
subject to corporate approval processes of the Terminal Operators.

A scheme to enhance the protection of the villages is potentially eligible for government
funding; however, there remains a significant shortfall in funds.

This funding gap could be reduced if a new offshore sand extraction site, were to be
identified. It is necessary to now undertake further investigations to understand the possible
implications of such an approach and to determine if such an approach is feasible.

Until the impacts of a new licensed extraction area are fully understood, the Council and the
Terminal operators are unable to take a view about whether this can be considered as an
option to reduce the funding gap.

The potential scheme for the village frontages would ‘buy time’ for those communities
(hopefully up to 20 years) but the existing defences could still deteriorate.

Extending the effective life of the existing defences will allow time to plan the future
management and adaptation of this coastline.
Significant progress has been made in the development of a way forward for Bacton and
Walcott, but there remains further work to be done to determine whether the coastal
management scheme will indeed be feasible.
For further information please contact: Rob Goodliffe, Coastal Management Team Leader,
North Norfolk District Council at Rob.Goodliffe@north-norfolk.gov.uk
Notes
1. Bacton Gas Terminal processes up to one third of the UK gas supply.
2. Beaches are a natural and effective coastal defence as well as being important for local
communities and tourism.
3. Monitoring confirms that over the past 10 years on average beach levels on this frontage
have been falling.
4. The Dutch use sediment extracted from their national waters for coast protection every
year. In 2014 the Dutch extracted 40.4 million cubic meters of aggregate from their
waters for coast protection purposes. In contrast 1.5 million tonnes were extracted by
the UK in 2014 for coast protection purposes (source: International Council for the
Exploration of the Sea WGEXT Report 2015).
5. Extraction of sediment from the North Sea is highly regulated, as such environmental
factors such as fisheries, flora and fauna and coastal process are all considered as part
of the marine licensing process.
6. If a new licensed area to provide sand for beaches was considered technically feasible
and environmentally acceptable, any commercial agreement would limit use of sediment
to this scheme only (Sediment would not be taken elsewhere for any other purpose).
7. About The Crown Estate: The Crown Estate manages around half the UK foreshore and
the UK seabed out to 12 nautical miles. It manages almost all of the sand and gravel
resources lying off of the coast of the UK and is responsible for awarding and managing
commercial agreements for companies to extract it. The Crown Estate is an independent
commercial business, created by an Act of Parliament, and returns all its profit to the
Treasury for the benefit of the public finances. www.thecrownestate.co.uk