Minsmere Levels Stakeholders Group - History

These pages and documents chart the events and impetus that drove local residents and landowners to set up Minsmere Levels Stakeholders Group to engage with the various statutory bodies such as the Environment Agency and Internal Drainage Board, as well as RSPB and Suffolk Coast Action for Resilience.

The  concerns that led to the coming into being of our stakeholder group was nothing new. For centuries, at least since 1750, and probably before, our community itself been responsible for the care and management of the Levels and their coastline, albeit through the landowners. Over the years these responsibilities had been assumed by more remote bodies such as the local councils and the Environment Agency. Our new group just reflected the desire of local people to have a say in how these duties were discharged .

Initial correspondence goes back to 2001 but the valley flooding in 2007/2008 winter resulted in a number of public meetings and the setup of Minsmere Levels Stakeholders Group.

Minsmere Sluice discharge pipes became blocked with shingle after a storm surge in the North Sea and it became clear that significant repairs to the sluice outfall were necessary. At one point when the shingle didn't seem to be clearing itself, consideration was given to having the discharge pipes blown up by the Army's Royal Engineers. Fortunately heavy rains and a build up of pressure on the land side along with a low tide resulted in the discharge pipes unblocking themselves.

However, as a result, members of MLSG with pressure from the village communities of Theberton and Eastbridge, alongside RSPB worked to persuade the Environment Agency to commit funds to replace the Minsmere Sluice outfall and more recently ipdate the drainage channels and sluice gates, as the original gates were rusting and allowing saline waters back into the Leiston Drain. The new gates still allow some saline incursion into Leiston Drain to support the unusual community of organisms that had developed and require a slightly brackish water habitat.