News story
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Published 23 July 2020
The Environment Agency’s annual flood defence work to protect thousands of coastal properties from flooding is almost complete for 2020 – in spite of the additional challenges posed by the coronavirus outbreak.
The £7m scheme saw 400,000 cubic metres of sand replaced on Lincolnshire’s beaches – enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall more than 4 times over.
The sand is pumped from the seabed back onto the beach to replace levels lost to the sea over winter.
This means the beaches – rather than hard defences like sea walls – take the brunt of the waves’ force and energy, so hard defences sustain less damage and erosion.
Each year the work is carried out from Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point and helps protect 20,000 homes and businesses, 24,500 static caravans and 35,000 hectares of land from flooding.
But this year saw extra challenges as the country responded to the risk of coronavirus.
Despite a delayed start, Environment Agency teams worked throughout the summer in line with government guidance. The work is expected to finish by the end of July.
Equipment will be removed in the first week of August, and as much as possible will be moved by sea to reduce congestion on local roads.
To ensure public safety, the beach between Roman Bank and Huttoft car park will be temporarily closed while the equipment is moved off-site. Parking restrictions will be in place at the Roman Bank and Sea Lane junction to allow large machinery to be removed and Huttoft beach and car park will be temporarily shut to people and vehicles.
But the closure will only be in place from 6am on Monday, 3 August to 10pm on Friday, 7 August – and the beach will reopen ahead of the weekend.
Deborah Campbell, east coast flood risk manager for the Environment Agency, said:
Lincolnshire’s beloved sandy beaches welcome thousands of visitors each year, and now that lockdown has lifted, we know many are looking forward to returning.
That’s why we’re looking to remove our equipment as quickly, safely, and with as little disruption as possible.
This annual project is vital to helping protect homes and businesses up and down the coast, so we appreciate everyone’s patience as we wrap up this year’s work, which we’re satisfied to say has been successful despite the challenging circumstances.
The work draws to a close just as the Environment Agency launches its new strategy to protect millions from, and prepare them for, the risk of future flooding brought on by the climate emergency. Measures include an extended flood warning service, increased investment in natural flood management, measures to help home-owners and businesses become more resilient, and better partnerships with road, rail and utility providers.
The Environment Agency has been restoring and maintaining sand levels on the Lincolnshire coast each year since 1994, and, while the work continues to be effective, long-term estimates suggest that the impacts of climate change will mean continuing to use sand alone as a method of managing flood risk may not be suitable.
The Environment Agency has developed a new draft strategy with a number of options based on the results of a consultation held last year. More information on the Strategy can be found on our Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point and Lincolnshire beach management website.
You can check whether you’re at risk of flooding and sign up for free warnings at www.gov.uk/flood or by calling 0345 988 1188.
The UK Government is accepting proposals for a project under its Conflict, Stability and Security Fund that aims to empower young Israeli leaders with the skills and motivation to engage positively with Israeli society on the two state solution.
Your project proposal should be based on the following:
The funding period is 1 September 2020 to 31 March 2022.
The project will be managed under an Accountable Grant Agreement. Projects in this framework are not allowed to generate a profit for the delivery partner. Proposals from for-profit organisations can only be considered if an officially registered non-profit making arm or division of the for-profit organisation will deliver the project.
The successful bidder must be willing to engage closely with the British Embassy in Israel and our independent project evaluators. It must commit to deliver a project in line with HMG policy. This will include close cooperation during the inception and recruitment period.
We encourage project participants to represent a cross section of society, which is not limited to emerging leaders in the political or peacebuilding spheres. However, all participants must be personally supportive of a two state solution at the start of the project. Bidders must demonstrate that they have an existing, diverse network in place to identify relevant participants.
The project must be able to demonstrate how it will adapt to the likelihood of continued COVID-19 related disruption to project delivery.
Proposals should be sent to beta.bids2022@gmail.com by 13 August 2020. In the email subject line and file names, please indicate the name of the bidder.
Bidders should fill in the standard Project Proposal Form , and include a breakdown of project costs in the ABB – Activity Based Budget Template . Please use the templates attached. We will not consider proposals submitted in other formats. Budgets must be Activity Based Budgets (ABB), all costs should be listed in GBP (not ILS).
The British Embassy Tel Aviv reserves the right to carry out due diligence of potential grantees as part of the selection process. Due to the volume of bids expected we will not be able to provide feedback on unsuccessful bids.
The maximum funding for the project is up to GBP 85,000 in year 1 (September 2020-March 2021) and GBP 170,000 in year 2 (April 2021-March 2022). This may be in addition to co-funding and self-funding contributions.
Administrative costs must not exceed 10% of the total project budget.
Successful bids must demonstrate strong strategic relevance to the project outcome and objective, and have a clear focus on delivering change and sustainability.
Proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria:
This must include detailed information on how the project would deliver its activities and outcomes under:
different COVID-19 scenarios – including full or partial lockdown and restrictions on local / international travel, for part or all of the project period. This would impact both project activities and the need for a local project team presence
different political scenarios – including annexation scenarios, elections and other potential sources of instability
Responding to today’s NHS workforce statistics, Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said:
It’s fantastic that there are now over 13,500 more nurses and over 7,800 more doctors working in our NHS compared to last year.
This pandemic has shown how proud the entire country is of all our brave health and care workers, and what an essential role they play in society.
We made the commitment of 50,000 more nurses by end of this Parliament, and I’m determined we will meet it.
Earlier this month the latest UCAS statistics revealed a 16% rise in applicants for nursing and midwifery courses in England, the second year-on-year increase. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has also reported its largest ever annual increase of registered nursing and midwifery professionals, with around 18,370 more on the permanent register to work in the UK compared to a year ago.
On Tuesday the government announced a 2.8% pay rise for NHS doctors and dentists, backdated to April 2020, accepting in full the recommendations of the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration.
Separate figures released on Tuesday by Health Education England also show the number of GP trainees in England have risen for the third year running, with recruitment up 15% compared to the same point last year.
The figures for April include some former healthcare professionals who bravely volunteered to return to the frontline during the pandemic. April figures also show that 442 returners were identified, of which there are 82 doctors and 112 nurses and health visitors. Not all returners are reflected in the monthly workforce stats as they could have been employed on fixed-term, honorary or bank contracts, or via NHS Professionals.
Today NHS Digital has published its monthly NHS workforce data for April 2020.
Over the last year (April 2019 to April 2020) the number of nurses has gone up by 13,502: from 282,506 to 296,008.
Over the last year (April 2019 to April 2020) the number of doctors has gone up by 7,890: from 112,304 to 120,194.
April 2020 figures also show that 442 ‘returners’ were identified through the ‘Return to NHS – COVID-19’ code. Of these, there are 82 doctors and 112 nurses and health visitors.
Figures released by Health Education England show there have been 3,441 acceptances onto GP specialty training in 2020, compared with 2,891 at the same stage in 2019.
Student nurses do not have full registration with the NMC, and so are counted as ‘support to clinical staff’. They are not included in the ‘nurses’ count. Medical students are on the same standing as Foundation 1 doctors, and so are counted as ‘doctors’ in the statistics.
NHS Professionals is an organisation in the United Kingdom that supplies temporary staff to the NHS.
New UK support to tackle devastating locust swarms in Africa and Asia
New UK-aid support will be used to tackle this year’s unprecedented locust outbreaks across Africa and Asia, where millions of insects are destroying thousands of hectares of crops.
With locust swarms growing 20 times larger since March 2020, International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan today announced £18 million of new UK aid in response to the crisis during a visit to British company Micron Group, on the Isle of Wight, which supplies pesticide sprayers to locust-affected countries.
The impact of the upsurge of insects across Africa and Asia has been made worse by coronavirus, with vulnerable communities facing dwindling food supplies alongside the pandemic.
Funded by UK aid, locust-affected countries are using Micron Group’s pesticide sprayers across Africa and Asia. Swarms of millions of insects can cover areas up to 100 square miles or more and these sprayers are able to cover large areas with pesticide.
Since January this year, the FAO has successfully controlled over 600,000 hectares of land, saved 1.2m tons crops with a value of $372 million and eradicated over 400 billion locusts in 10 countries in East Africa.
Of the new funding announced today, £17 million will go to the the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s FAO’s emergency appeal to help to control the increase of locusts across East Africa, Yemen and South West Asia, as well as reduce the risk of swarms spreading into the Sahel.
The UK will also provide up to £1 million to improve early warning and forecasting systems for desert locusts, so that countries can prepare for their arrival. This support, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and weather data from the UK Met Office, will help the FAO to target locust breeding sites and control outbreaks before they’re able to affect crucial crops and pastures.
The World Bank estimates that the cost of supporting farmers and producers affected by locusts in East Africa and Yemen alone could reach $8.5bn by the end of 2020.
Speaking during the visit, International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:
“Vulnerable communities are on the brink of starvation because of the biggest locust outbreak in decades, made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.
“British expertise is playing an important role in equipping companies with the right tools to combat the swarms and track where they will go next.
“But unless other countries also step up and act now, this crisis will spread and cause even more devastation.”
The new funding follows £8 million provided by the UK earlier this year to the FAO appeal, supporting Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Tanzania and Pakistan to destroy these pests. A supercomputer funded by UK aid is also helping countries in East Africa to track the insects’ movements around the continent.
During the visit, the International Development Secretary met with the directors from Micron Group to discuss how their sprayers have been key to tackling locusts in highly affected areas across the world. She also saw how the sprayers are assembled at their Isle of Wight factory and took part in a demonstration on how they work in the field.
Anthony Outlaw, Micron Group Operations Manager, said:
“Micron are proud to support the world on the fight against locusts through supplying cutting-edge equipment for the FAO. We have continued to work tirelessly throughout the pandemic to meet this demand. The whole team understand the importance of tackling this outbreak and the impact on food security it has for millions of people.”
The new £17 million of UK aid funding for the UN will be broken down as:
Additional funding of up to £1 million will go towards ACES (African Crop Epidemiological Systems), a consortium which includes the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International, CGIAR’s International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, Scriptoria and the University of Cambridge, to establish tools, technologies and partnerships needed for effective pest surveillance, early warning and response functions in plant health management in Sub-Saharan Africa. ACES is funded by DFID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
UK aid will support the UN FAO emergency appeal for the locust outbreak across Africa and Asia. The FAO have asked donors worldwide for a total of $311 million of funding of which the UK will have contributed £25 million.
With UK aid backed funding, the FAO is spraying pesticides on the ground and by air to prevent further damage to crops and protect livelihoods. The FAO is also working with governments in Africa, to train experts to manage future outbreaks and to conduct research to better understand the swarms.
The supercomputer is being provided through the Department for International Development’s Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) programme, in collaboration with the Met Office and the Africa Climate Policy Centre.
Micron Group is a leading manufacturer of specialist sprayers and weed control equipment for a wide range of applications worldwide. Their portfolio also includes hand-held, vehicle and aircraft-mounted sprayers, weed wipers and applicators. More on the company here