A senior town planner at the Hay Festival warned that the City of Hull, in the Northeast of England, may be submerged within the next 100 year. Many towns on the UK’s coast could be affected by rising sea levels in years to come. Hull residents may have to relocate if coastal erosion persists. The city is facing two major problems. 1. It could be subject to coastal erosion. 2. It might end up being submerged by seawater. Dr. Hugh Ellis is the Town and Country Planning Association’s Head of Policy. He warned that the local authorities have not done enough to address the rising sea level threat. Dr. Ellis went so far as to doubt whether Hull will still exist in the future century. Image: Hay Festival Facebook. He predicts that the sea level will rise four feet by 2025, which would spell doom for coastal communities. The Institution of Civil Engineers, and the Royal Institute of British Architects, warned five years ago that Hull would soon be the ‘Venice of the north,’ as global warming wreaked havoc with sea levels. At the Hay Festival, Dr. Ellis stated that “There are only a few people at the Department for Communities and Local Government that are interested in this. But most of them are planning for a 60cm increase by 2100, but science shows that it will be at least twice that.” Hull City Centre. All this will soon be underwater. Image: Wikimedia. “We must think about moving people and creating new communities. It is important to ask the question, “Does Hull have a future?” This is the type of planning that we should be discussing. This issue is not being managed by a central intelligence.
Senior town planner for Hull warns that the City of Hull could become underwater within the next 100 years
