"Unbelievable", "A massive scaremongering exercise", "Completely unsubstantiated".

These are just some of the complaints from beach-front residents in Shoreham and Lancing in response to another sweeping and under-researched report from the Environment Agency (EA) on the risk of flooding in Sussex.

levels resulting from global warming.

The EA also said 35,000 properties between Selsey and Bexhill faced a similar risk.

This isn't the fist time the EA has issued unsubstantiated flood warnings. Three years ago, it claimed 1,300 properties were at risk and spent £10 million of public money on rock groynes off Lancing.

Yet despite residents and local groups asking it, the EA can't identify a single property of the 1,300 which is specifically at risk.

When the EA, always eager to spend public money on nebulous projects, wants to fritter away its flood budget, the phrase "rising tides caused by global warming" is always trotted out.

Does the agency ever consult reliable records or does is pluck its misleading "facts" from thin air? In fact, global warming is likely to reduce the likelihood of flooding.

Tidal records held by sea-level experts, the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, show that, since 1997, tides have been getting lower.

In 1997, the highest tide was 6.9 metres. In 2004, it was 6.6 metres.

At Shoreham, despite the huge expenditure on rock groynes and shingle sculpting - which could reach an astronomical £53 million if completed - the existing concrete wall, parallel with Widewater already prevents flooding.

been blown on to it - not because of flooding.

The addition of thousands of tonnes of shingle along the beach, radically changing its profile, hinders access to the sea, especially for the elderly, infirm and children.

It has also damaged the tourist industry on the South Coast.

in value and are now virtually uninsurable.

-Derek Neate, Lancing