Beach Management Plan: funding latest: bridging the gap: reports

There have been efforts by District Councillors to find more funding for the Beach Management Plan:

Beach Management Plan: funding latest: bridging the gap

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Their efforts have paid off:

£500k funding boost for Sidmouth beach management plan | Sidmouth Herald

Cash injection will help plug funding gap for beach management plan | Sidmouth Nub News

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Here’s the press release from the District Counci as reported by the Heraldl – with a warning that £1m is still lacking:

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Local Levy grant success for Sidmouth and East Beach Management Plan

South West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee approves £500,000 award, which will help plug funding gap for Sidmouth and East Beach Management PlanOn Thursday 9 January 2020, East Devon District Council’s Sidmouth and East Beach Management Plan (BMP) scheme came one step closer to being fully funded, when the South West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (SWRFCC) agreed to grant the BMP £500,000 to help bridge the effective funding gap of £1.5million.Depending on the level of contributions from other potential sources that have been identified such as Utilities companies, East Devon’s Housing service and Sidmouth Lifeboat, the effective funding gap has now been brought down to around £1million, which must be found before the scheme can achieve grant funding and deliver an improved beach management scheme for Sidmouth via the preferred option for the Sidmouth and East Beach Management Plan. However, the current £1m funding gap could increase if these identified potential sources do not contribute…EDDC press release Local Levy grant success for Sidmouth and East Beach Management Plan

£500k funding boost for Sidmouth beach management plan | sidmouthherald.co.uk

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Councillor Loudoun also provides an opinion piece on the Sidmouth Nub News website.

He concludes thus:

“I ask residents to think about why you believe we are taking the Plan forward and to accept it not because as District Councillors we are doing this in a flight of fancy, we aren’t doing this because we want to make the Esplanade look awful and destroy the tourist trade, we aren’t doing this because we are corrupt and we aren’t doing this because we don’t care about Sidmouth.

“We are doing what the Plan proposes because it is what the professional advice recommends against a back drop where the climate is changing for the worst and so as a town Sidmouth needs to prepare as the Plan recommends.”

Residents should ‘accept’ Beach Management Plan is in ‘the best interests of Sidmouth’