SCOPAC Origins & Working Arrangements
The Standing Conference on Problems Associated with the Coastline (SCOPAC) was established in 1986 following a two day conference entitled ‘Problems associated with the coastline' held on the Isle of Wight in April 1985. SCOPAC was established with the aim of helping local authorities and others interested in the sustainable management of the central south coast of England in order to help resolve:
• The complexity of both the natural processes of work along the coastline and also the many issues and conflicting interests affecting the coastal zone;
• The roles and responsibilities of the multitude of local and government authorities, agencies and other bodies with an interest in shoreline management;
• The degree of isolation in which these authorities were obliged to take decisions at that time, which so frequently have knock-on effects on the interests of others.
It was resolved that something should be done to address these difficulties and, in October 1986, the inaugural meeting of SCOPAC was held. SCOPAC established a two-tier system with a full conference comprising a forum for elected members (mainly local authority politicians), interest groups and technical officers to meet and exchange information and to approve a sub-regional research programme. In addition, an ‘officers' working group', comprising technical officers, was established which would investigate coastal issues and carry out research providing feedback to the full conference.
A distinction in SCOPAC's membership risk was established between Full and Associate members, with both categories of membership electing one member representative and contributing to an annual subscription. Full members of SCOPAC made an additional, substantially larger, input to the budget dedicated to the furtherance of SCOPAC's research objectives. However, only those with full membership had a voting entitlement. Over the last twenty two years, SCOPAC has commissioned over £1 million worth of valuable sub-regional research to the benefit of its members (see research section on this website).
In April 2008 the Environment Agency was given a ‘strategic overview for flood and coastal erosion risk management' by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). This meant that, for the first time, one organisation had overall responsibility for the management of all coastal risks. As part of the strategic overview, the sixteen regional coastal defence groups for England and Wales were restructured comprising seven new groups covering the English coast and the Bristol Channel . The new arrangements saw a rationalisation of the sixteen groups that had existed previously for the whole of England and Wales with the aim of providing a more streamlined and focussed delivery of coastal erosion risk management for the future.
As part of these changes SCOPAC Full Conference has re-established itself as an important political voice for the coast for central southern England, whilst the former SCOPAC Officers' Working Group has now become the Southern Coastal Group, which is the regional coastal group for the section of coastline between Selsey Bill in West Sussex and Portland Bill in Dorset, including the Isle of Wight. The map provided below illustrates the location of each of the seven new coastal groups.
Successful management of coastal risks can only be achieved successfully through close working between the Environment Agency and local authority coast protection authorities particularly through the coastal groups. Whilst the Environment Agency and local authorities have been working together effectively in many ways for a number of years, the strategic overview provides the opportunity for closer, more focussed, collaboration with the aim of reducing risks particularly in the context of climate change. The figure below illustrates ways in which SCOPAC, together with the regional coastal groups, are working with the Agency in order to fulfil the national aspirations for coastal risk management.
