Shoeburyness Explosions

As regular readers will know, for all Lee-Over-Sands's idyllic atomosphere, its nature reserve on Colne Point and highest UK sunshine figures, it has something that spoils the perfection.

The Shoeburyness Explosions. 

Lee-Over-Sands is approx 10-12 miles from the QinetiQ MOD site - yet we feel the affects here like a minor earthquake. Residents further up the coast in Jaywick also suffer from it - vibrations are worse sometimes mainly due to atmospheric conditions.

So its now 2013 and still the explosions go on, shaking my home like an earthquake - When I bought my home nothing appeared in the "local searches" to indicate the problem - I only discovered it after moving in.

Every year I wonder if it will ever end.

Does complaining help? No.

Its pretty insulting when you receive letters implying you its "in your imagination" and it can't possibly happen as the noise levels are within tolerable limits. The noise isn't the issue, its the airborne shockwave that causes the problem, it rushes across the sea, across the seawall and makes my roof and entire house shake with the disturbance to the air (pressure differential).

I've tried writing to the local paper, the Clacton & Frinton Gazette, also my MP Douglas Carswell, QinetiQ themselves. Phoned the "complaints line" continually, and given up dozens of times because nothing is ever done to stop it - citing historical reasons ("its always gone on").

Our local MP even raised it in parliament - after enquiries from locals but was ignored as its "more important" to keep it going because it helps "our boys in Afghanistan" what a load of nonsense propaganda.

QinetiQ are a privately owned government contracted company that "disposes" of munitions and have their own deadlines - why would a company which is more bothered about commercial profit and whose sole purpose is to process munitions (blow them up) actually care about the peace and quiet of thousands of local people along the Kent & Essex coast?

With regard to the "possibility" of property damage caused by the explosions - The ministry of defence say its impossible - well you sit quietly in my home office when the explosions happen - you see what its like.

For me working from home, the biggest issue is not damage caused by the vibrations, its the loss of my "peace", absolutely nothing prepares you for it, no amount of email alerts stating "Explosions may be noticed" on a weekly email are helpful to calm my nerves on days when its bad. It makes you jump and is quite stressful to deal with - randomly having to face an unscheduled earthquake dozens of times a day on certain days.

There is nothing online about any organisations who are against it all - so I've set up a Facebook group to try and raise awareness and help to organise some kind of coordinated activism.

Click here and join / "like" the page if you are on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/317646781663742/

60 Years ago... The Great Flood hit Lee-Over-Sands

Thursday 31st of January is the 60th Anniversary of the 1953 Flood where 303 people died along the East Coast, and 37 people died during the night in Jaywick.

The flood water breached sea defences to the North West of Lee-Over-Sands where the sea-wall meets the high ground near Dumont Avenue in Point Clear - it then filled our area and washed across the low lying land from Lee-Over-Sands towards Jaywick on that fateful night.

This led me to ponder (as all Lee-Over-Sands residents do) about our relationship with the sea, our precarious historical reliance on the sea-wall (for those of us in "Wall Street") and how half of our community lies protected behind a sea wall that was bolstered after its failure in that fateful year.

You can see how Wall Street is protected during the spring tide!

Keith Simmonds, my girlfriend's brother in-law who grew up in the area remembers "Beach Road" in his childhood not having a tidal creek in front of the properties, the houses were actually "on the beach".


You can see evidence of this if you stand on the sea wall going towards Point Clear - between Lee-Over-Sands and the sewage works you can clearly see that even over the years the landscape has changed dramatically, why? Put simply - the land height is very different due to the sea defences blocking new sediment over decades.


The tidal action of the creek washing silt in twice daily is actually building a vast natural sea defence, and is forming a river delta - this may of course be why the environment agency is scaling back its protection and maintenance of our section.

The river delta is of course what is now known as our nature reserve, the formation of which has also created the second creek in front of the Beach Road properties.

You might think that this theory is rubbish, but don't forget that in Roman times, Colchester was actually not "inland" at all, and had a sea-faring port.

But how many years has this and height difference formed over?


We all know the sea wall height was increased after 1953, but how long was it here before that?

Although it doesn't go into precise details, there is mention of a sea wall in the area dating back to the 12th Century in the book - "The Great Tide", written to document the flooding and to explain what happened. In the extensive background information - there is record of local landowners petititoning the crown to be given aid and manpower to help protect farmland - although it doesn't go into details, with so many sea defences in the area it might not be our sea wall.

The difference in land height of course with the land behind the sea defences and the tidal creek nature reserve is now quite significant, approx 4 metres at least - which of course has either formed over hundreds of years or if Keith's story is considered, might even be less than a hundred years - Who knows - One day I'll investigate parish records or meet someone who remembers when the sea wall was first built.

I would love to see some older maps and compare more details over centuries if anyone has anything!

Road Condition Worsens

Andy Haynes asked me to post the following on his behalf...