The Coast

The Essex Coast Today

The coastal zone around Essex constitutes the largest habitat type within the county, and covers a coastal strip of land surrounded by extensive tidal areas. It ranges to a length of over 300 miles, winding along broad river estuaries and secret creeks and inlets. The landscape of mudflats, saltings, sand and shingle banks, sea walls and coastal grassland with ditches and borrow-dykes, plays a key part in supporting a rich variety of wildlife.

The Essex coast is extremely important in its nature conservation value. For instance, some estuarine feeding areas are of national and international importance for the survival of the birds which feed there. The ever changing form of the coast has historically influenced economic activities in the area, and continues to do so up to the present time.

In an attempt to tame this fluid, changing environment, man's control and influence on our coast has increased from the early 1600s when sea walls and coastal reclamation were first introduced in the area, right up to today with the construction of the Thames and Colne flood defence barriers. As agricultural systems improved and intensified, so the pressure on coastal land increased, with over 75% of coastal grassland being drained and used for arable production this century.

The Value of the Coastal Resource

Coastal habitats are recognised by all those involved in wildlife conservation as extremely important assets. Campaigning reports by various organisations (English Nature, the RSPB) have highlighted the value of the coastal zone and identified many of the threats to it. Essex County Council has produced planning guidelines which give prominence to the value of nature conservation, with strategies to protect, maintain and enhance the coastal habitats on which the wildlife depends as an essential part of the environment.

Within Essex much of our coast has been designated as a special area of one sort or another, with areas of National Nature Reserve and Sites of Special Scientific Interest such as Hamford Water and the Southend and Leigh foreshore. More recently large areas of the coast including the Blackwater, Colne, Crouch and Dengie Peninsula have been designated Special Protection Areas (SPAS) or Ramsar sites because of their importance to national and international populations of bird and plant species. Many of these areas overlap, and all recognise the value of the Essex coast as a refuge for thousands of species of plants and animals.

Yet the threats to our coastline remain, and in some areas continue to grow. Coastal land, especially in the Thames estuary, is constantly threatened by development of industrial or urban expansion, by new roads, port expansion and marinas. Increased need or land for waste disposal, mineral and aggregate extraction and large scale commercial development means 'marginal' land, especially coastal marshland, is attractive to commercial businesses.

As the amount of 'leisure time', long distance mobility and proportion of disposable income has increased over the last 50 years, so the use of the coast as a leisure facility has increased. Pressure from such activities as windsurfing, water skiing, recreational boating and fishing and particularly the increasing use of jet skis all cause stress on the plant and animal populations, especially around the intertidal mudflats, salt marshes, creeks, and rivers.

Dumping of sewage waste at sea is due to cease soon, but offshore dredging, oil contamination by shipping, and pollution by sewage waste, nitrates, PCBS, and other toxic materials from outfalls and elsewhere, all add to the long-term threats to the quality of our coastal waters.

The rise in sea level, which may accelerate with global warming, concentrates attention on the long-term management of coastal protection. The lengthy sea walls, which are in themselves valuable for wildlife are expensive to maintain. Essex is rich in saltmarsh, which has a protective role in absorbing wave energy, but has recently seen a considerable decrease. Erosion is causing the tidal margin of our county to be squeezed into an ever decreasing area of land.

Targets for 2000

• Campaign for wider recognition of the immense value of the variety and quality of the wildlife along the Essex Coast. Further develop well managed access for visitors to coastal reserves to enhance knowledge and appreciation of the plants and animals (including birds and all living creatures) and the environment in which they live.
• Increase the area of coastal grassland, including grazing marsh with associated freshwater wetland areas, by 25% to compensate in part for grassland lost in the 20th century.
• Safeguard existing areas of saltmarsh, sand, shingle and mudflats. Support the finding of suitable sites for strategic withdrawal of sea defences, the re-creation of saltmarsh, and the use of beach recharge and simple barrier schemes. Monitor sites of geological interest.
• Safeguard the future of intertidal species and marine habitats further out to sea by identifying areas of special interest and campaigning for their protection.
• Support stringent planning control of coastal developments, location, size and environmental effects. Support strong planning control to maintain the open and rural character of undeveloped coastal areas.
• Phase out the disposal in the sea of sewage and wastes of all kinds.
• Seek to change the 'waste land' image of coastal marginal grassland, which attracts developers, to a more positive perception of its value. The use of further coastal land for waste disposal should cease.
• Campaign for strict control of offshore dredging for aggregate with far reaching environmental assessment before further developments are allowed.
• Support recommendations of the Donaldson Report for much stricter control of shipping to prevent oil pollution.
• Campaign for protected wildlife refuges in rivers and estuaries free from intrusion by power boats, jet-skis and other sources of disturbance.

Achieving the Coastal Aims

While many of the aims are broad and far-reaching in their effects, there are many practical ways that these can be achieved.  

• Through supporting the preparation and implementation of integrated management plans for all the river estuaries of Essex, in co-operation where necessary (Greater Thames, Stour) with neighbouring counties.
• Support forming national, regional, and local bodies to co-ordinate Integrated Coastal Zone Management, involving all interested public organisations and departments in dealing with onshore and offshore development plans.
• Support the adoption of wildlife enhancement and conservation coastal planning policies within local and county plans.
• Establish and develop coastal reserves with a far seeing policy to enhance and re-create a wide range of habitats to support the rich variety of wildlife which is a precious heritage for the Essex Coast.
• Support and encourage existing protection measures such as SSSIs, National Nature Reserves and those more recent protective schemes such as Ramsar, Special Protection Area and Environmentally Sensitive Area designations.
• Help support and publicise the ideas of managed retreat, its aims and reasoning.
• Encourage coastal landowners to take up the opportunities offered by the ESA and countryside schemes.
• Support and publicise the aims and reasoning of a range of coastal strategies which involve working with nature to achieve ecologically sound sea defences.
• Press for the establishment of a Regional Coastal Zone Project Officer within the Wildlife Trusts and support the aim of establishing a Coastal Warden/Research post within Essex to allow continuous monitoring of our coastal heritage.