Sand sculpture ‘postcard’ to PM highlights climate risk to coastal communities

A giant “postcard” to the Prime Minister has been drawn on a UK beach which is deemed at the highest risk of the impact of climate change.

The arts organisation Sand In Your Eye created the 60m by 40m sculpture on Skegness beach in Lincolnshire on Tuesday.

Members of the community also added messages around the postcard, including ‘Stop single-use plastic’, ‘Stop Oil’, ‘Help’, ‘Save us’ and ‘Carbon Tax’.

Rights Community Action (RCA), a climate collective involved in the creation of the sculpture, claims that Skegness is one of several areas of the UK that “live with the risk of devastation” to their homes and businesses due to climate change, and has called on the Government to take action.

Naomi Luhde-Thompson, director of RCA, said: “No one’s paying attention to communities like Skegness – the Government certainly isn’t.

“These are places on the edge, living with the impacts of the climate crisis, that is here and happening now.

“The people of Skegness have been adding their contributions to this postcard to Rishi. They’ve been ignored long enough.

“The Government has to change the law on climate change and planning, so these communities can be saved.”

The added slogans meant the total sculpture spanned 150m by 70m of the beach, north of Skegness Pier.

It comes as the Government released its National Adaptation Plan on Monday, a 140-page document containing a five-year plan that ministers said would boost the country’s resilience to climate change and help protect people, homes and businesses from heatwaves, droughts and floods.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said adaptations would include building new flood defences, planning for more green spaces and building infrastructure that could withstand changes to the climate, such as extreme heat and flooding.

But the plan has been labelled as “deeply disappointing” by Green MP Caroline Lucas, and criticised by climate bodies.

The Committee for Climate Change also criticised a failure by successive governments to ensure the UK’s plan to achieve net zero was aligned with local plans.

A new map, designed by the #WeAreHere climate campaign, shows that Skegness and several other areas of Lincolnshire are some of the most vulnerable in the UK to the impact of climate change.

RCA is now urging the Government to accept amendments to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill that could help areas at risk of flooding protect themselves from climate change.

Amendments tabled by members of the House of Lords have pressed the Government to give local councils the power to take their own measures to protect against climate change.

RCA said the current planning policy was “inadequate” and added that “investment falls far short of what is required”.