CAMPAIGNERS are calling for urgent action to prevent the sea bursting through coastal defences at Walton's Naze.

Volunteers used large baskets of rock to help prop up the crumbling cliffs at the north east corner of the popular beauty spot earlier year.

Kirby-le-Soken farmer David Eagle pumped £3,000 into a scheme using 60 tonnes of granite as temporary sea defences.

But continuing erosion means the cliff are continuing to collapse and threatens to breach the sea wall.

There are fears the lower part of the Naze will flood, putting the John Weston Nature Reserve at risk and threatening farmland, as well as Anglian Water’s sewage farm.

Campaigners claim the makeshift defences are not a long-term solution and are demanding action from the powers-that-be.

The Naze Protection Society, which was set up more than 30 years ago, to discuss the problem.

Steven Walker, who was at the meeting said: “We discussed various options including repairing breakwaters and installing fish tail groynes similar to those in Great Holland.

"But we need Tendring Council and government agencies such as the Environment Agency, Natural England and Anglian Water to get on board with this as a matter of urgency.”

About a metre of cliff is being eroded every year.

The £1.2million Crag Walk project to protect the southern section of the Naze from the sea was completed six years ago.

The 110m-long rock structure was designed to prevent the 70ft-high cliffs and landmark Naze Tower slipping into the sea over the next 100 years.

The cliffs contain 55 million-year-old fossils and are a site of special scientific interest.

Now the lower cliffs at the top of the Naze are under attack.

Naze Protection Society chairman David Gager said: “We need more local people to get involved in our work to bring pressure to bear on the local and national bodies who are responsible for protecting the coastline and the much-cherished Naze.”