Environment Minister Elliot Morley chose Studland Bay as the most appropriate place to launch the government’s new guidance on shoreline management plans.
The Dorset Coast Path runs along the beach where the National Trust has already begun to abandon sea defences. NT Head of Sustainability Rob Jarman warned that the beach was going to change.
He added: “Every storm brings new changes to the beach which is gradually moving further north towards Shell Bay. There’s a limit to what can be done. It’s a waste of money to try and keep things as they are.”
The Trust has twice moved Studland’s beach huts and plans already exist to move the cafe and visitors’ centre as they will be flooded within twenty years.
Mr Morley acknowledged the natural resistance that people feel towards change, but emphasised that coastlines are dynamic and that it’s not a realistic option to preserve the whole coast exactly as it is indefinitely.
