James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »
Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy » 
Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related » 
Jeremy Middleton is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of FTSE-200 company HomeServe » 
Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » King Canute was indeed Great and like most anecdotal stories about historic characters there is a lot more to him than meets the eye. I will talk about managed realignment later but have been reassured that - due to climate change - by 2050 Northumberland will be the most pleasant part of Europe in which to live. My certainty comes from having a role with the Environment Agency which helps me understand the potential shape and climatic conditions of the north east in the future
The north east has its share of potential flooding sites but luckily a national and local fund of around ã15million is available to pay for a range of flood alleviation. On Friday I was at the opening of a scheme to reduce flooding to 144 properties in Hexham, the cost was ã7.6Million, it has already worked and save ã2million of damage. In today's world of more heavy and sporadic rain incidents any properties in the lee of an area of moorland needs to be thinking about dealing with more flooding. Now this is where the use of land for more than food becomes a reality - see the RELU debate
The coast is a different issue but the Environment Agency is now dealing with those issues too, realignment of our coastline is okay.....unless it is your land or property which is about to be washed away!
I am involved with pulling together a potential beach-side cafe/restaurant and heritage centre at Alnmouth and the fact it will be in two Victorian lifeboat houses means it is close to the sea, in this scenario it is prudent to mitigate and protect the site but also - Canute in mind - adapt the building so when it happens the damage is minimal. The idea of a wave mosaic by International artist Willa Story also offers the chance for a significant installation to celebrate the power of the sea. Nature will in the end rule not only the waves!
In the meantime as we form our ideas about this site I conjore a sign blowing in the sea wind stating the great name....Canute's.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »