Call to Arms

Within the national Flood & Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) sector, policy and guidance is a fundamental element that helps to shape the success and sustainability of future coastal management.

In recent years, Risk Management authorities (RMA), particularly Local Authorities have found themselves facing many policy and guidance issues. Whilst the Defra Policy Statement & National FCERM Strategy (2020) went some way towards trying to resolve some of these challenges, in many areas it didn’t go far enough.

With pressure mounting, in November 2020 Coastal Partners developed four ‘Call to Arms’ workstreams to help address the issues being faced. Created on behalf of the national Coastal Group Network (CGN) the workstreams covered the priority themes including:

Coastal Landfill, Place Shaping & Partnership Funding Coastal Adaptation Asset Management

The purpose of each ‘Call to Arms’ theme was to set out the national problem being faced and bring together partners from the national playing field to formulate a plan to tackle the issues identified. The primary function of each group was to share knowledge and collaborate with the end goal of attracting support to influence a positive change in national policy.

Each theme has moved forward at a different pace, but to date there has been significant national interest and with some strong outcomes in terms of advocacy and lobbying for change. The areas align well with the Local Government Association Coastal Special Interest Groups (LGA SIG) priorities and as such there are strong links between the organisations with officers from Coastal Partners bridging the gap between operational issues and national strategy and policy.