BMP consultation has closed

An earlier piece of news showed that there hasn’t been that much time for the public to feedback on plans for protecting Sidmouth’s eastern town:

Vision Group for Sidmouth – Beach Management Plan: consultation closes 3rd May

The Devon Live website has provided a lot of information:

The multi-million pound plans to protect Sidmouth from flooding – Devon Live

With full reports on the next steps here:

This is what will happen next with the plans to protect Sidmouth beach

The scheme consists of adding a new rock groyne on East Beach, importing new shingle onto Sidmouth Beach, and East Beach, and raising the existing splash wall along the rear of Sidmouth promenade by 500mm (approximately 19 inches).

• 13:23, 27 APR 2018
• UPDATED13:55, 27 APR 2018

The scheme consists of adding a new rock groyne on East Beach, importing new shingle onto Sidmouth Beach, and East Beach, and raising the existing splash wall along the rear of Sidmouth promenade by 500mm (approximately 19 inches).

The scheme’s aim is to maintain the 1990’s Sidmouth Coastal Defence Scheme Standard of Service, as well as to reduce the rate of beach and cliff erosion to the east of the River Sid (East Beach) in an integrated, justifiable and sustainable way.

Over 150 people attended a public consultation event at Kennaway House in Sidmouth last week to view information about the scheme, ask questions and to provide feedback on the investigations, computer modelling and outline design for Sidmouth Beach Management Scheme presented by East Devon and their consultants Royal HaskoningDHV.

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• The multi-million pound plans to protect Sidmouth from flooding

Cllr Tom Wright, East Devon’s portfolio holder for the environment and chair of the scheme’s steering group, said: “We had a really positive reaction to the exhibition material and the hard work which has gone into it, and I was pleased to see so many people coming to learn first-hand about our plans to protect the lovely town centre from the threat of flooding.”
The next steps of the project are to finalise the Preferred Option and obtain approval for the Outline Business Case that is required to obtain funding for the Detailed Design Stages. It is expected to be submitted to the Government by the summer and if approved, work could begin in 2019.

Dave Turner, engineering project manager, said: “The Beach Management Scheme is all reducing the risk of flooding to Sidmouth, so on East Beach we want to reduce the erosion of the cliffs. We plan to put a new rock groyne about 200m east of Sidmouth and then top up the shingle on the beach and and then raise the height of the small splash wall at the back of the promenade to stop flood water going in land and flooding lower-lying properties.

“If we do nothing, there are low-lying properties and businesses will be at risk of flooding.”

He added that the current estimated cost of the project is around £9m over its entire lifespan and that around £5.7m is expected to be funded by central government, leaving a funding gap of around £3.3m

Option 1 – The preferred option that the beach management plan for Sidmouth has identified is to construct one or two new rock groynes along East Beach over a distance of up to 200m east of the River Sid and to modify the length of the seaward end of the River Sid training wall and East Pier rock groyne to improve sediment transport between Sidmouth Town Beach and East Beach. This would be supported by importing new shingle and moving shingle along the beach as required.

Visitors to the exhibition were shown the flood risk to over 100 residential properties in low lying areas behind the seafront from waves overtopping the promenade. That flood risk is increased in the future as the cliffs to the East of the town recede and the eastern side of Sidmouth becomes exposed to coastal conditions.

By importing new shingle onto Sidmouth Beach and raising the existing splash wall, the amount of water overtopping the promenade can be captured, preventing the water flooding low lying areas in the town centre. On East Beach, by using the new groyne to hold a larger shingle beach, wave action against the toe of the cliffs can be reduced.

The scheme presented by Royal HaskoningDHV is a result of extensive testing of groynes, beach profiles and splash wall heights using computer simulations of waves and shingle, which have been validated against records and observed beach behaviour to provide the necessary assurance to the Environment Agency for funding approval.

Alice Johnson, Coastal Engineer for Royal HaskoningDHV, said: “It was great to have the opportunity to share this update on the Sidmouth and East Beach BMP with the community. We found the event extremely useful and thank all those who attended for their insightful questions and contributions which we will seek to build in to our continuing work.”

Comments can be sent to the council up until May 3, 2018, on the plans.

This is what will happen next with the plans to protect Sidmouth beach – Devon Live