Final Report to DEFRA - Jurassic Coast

• Of this 24%, only 31% knew what the SMP policy was for their area.
Together, the results suggested that less than 10% of people in coastal areas were
aware of one of the key policy mechanisms for deciding how their coast will be managed
in future.
The survey also showed that:
• 47% felt ‘not very well-informed’ and a further 22% ‘not at all’ informed about the
decision-making process surrounding coastal change.
• 57% felt ‘not at all’ involved in the decision-making process regarding coastal
change, and a further 33% answered ‘not a great deal’.
• 37% said that they would like more involvement in the decision making process
around coastal change, with a further 16% answering ‘maybe’.
These results suggest that while a small minority do already feel engaged in the coastal
change decision-making process, despite recent public engagement opportunities
offered through consultation on the Shoreline Management Plans, there is a clear
appetite for more information, and, to a lesser extent, more involvement.
3.3 Building adaptive capacity within communities
Given the time-limited nature of the project, partners in the Jurassic Coast Pathfinder
were keen to ensure that the project left a lasting legacy. Consequently, there was a
focus on building capacity at a number of levels:
• Capacity to understand coastal change: the project produced high quality visual
material to help communities understand change. These included video clips and
fly-throughs using aerial photography draped over computer generated images of
the coast to visualise what the coast may look like in 20, 50 and 100 years time
(Figure 2). Training in coastal management was also delivered to community
leaders, improving their ability to raise awareness of the need to adapt within their
communities. Site visits between and beyond the six case study sites were
organised to put communities facing similar challenges in touch with each other
with a view to providing practical and moral support. The conclusions of intensive
engagement with key stakeholders in each community were fed into a public
exhibition highlighting the implications of coastal change and the options for
adaptation to spread the message to the wider community and visitors.
• Capacity to initiate, manage and lead debates about coastal change: it was
recognised, at an early stage, that good engagement required good facilitation, so
training was commissioned for a network of facilitators to improve the capacity of
the public sector to support communities in debating adaptation. Spatial planners,
community planners, policy-makers and coastal engineers all attended the
training and the early signs are that a robust network of skilled facilitators has
been established. The involvement of local authority elected members was
sought at an early stage in view of their community leadership role. The project
Steering Group was chaired by a Cabinet Member from the lead authority, Dorset
County Council, and there was good elected member input to the workshops in
the six case study sites.
16