With Central Government funding (via the Environment Agency) of up to £100,000 in place, East Devon District Council has begun coastal defense beach recycling work at Sidmouth’s main beach.
As scheduled, work on East Devon District Council’s six-week beach recycling project started on Monday, 5 January, and a digger has begun removing the surplus build-up of shingle from the western end of the main beach (over the Bedford groyne).
Councillor Andrew Moulding , the council’s deputy leader and chairman of the Sidmouth & East beaches Beach Management Plan project’s Steering Group involved in the long-term management of both of those beaches, said: “ We are taking the opportunity to use the Government’s emergency funding scheme to finance the movement of beach material, which will help to protect Sidmouth’s sea wall from wave attack and reduce future shingle recycling costs.”
“ This was a windfall opportunity for government funds that East Devon District Council could not afford to miss applying for (successfully), while waiting for the results of the Beach Management Plan (BMP), which was commissioned by the council for both Main Beach and East Beach on the recommendations of the Shoreline Management Plan (second version), as well as in response to public concern over cliff erosion at East Beach.”
Warning signs have been put in place along the seafront alerting the public to the shingle recycling work, which will involve closing sections of the beach for safety reasons.
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Press Release