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Campaign for Coastal Defence
Bid for West Beach funding
Selsey Life June 2010
In the next few weeks, the District Council’s bid for government
money to carry out maintenance works at West Beach should be considered
by the Environment Agency’s Project Board. SOS, Selsey Town Council,
West Beach Selsey Residents’ Group and Manhood Peninsula Steering Group
all strongly support this bid. SOS congratulates the Council on the
investment it has so far put into this.
These bids are very expensive to put together – this one has cost many
tens of thousands of pounds. A large dossier has to be drawn up, setting
out in great detail the background to the proposed works, the benefits
of doing them, the costs involved, the potential effects on coastal
processes, environment, heritage assets etc. A very small number of
specialist consultants in the UK are experienced in drawing up these
(the Council has used Royal Haskoning).
If the bid is successful then the works at West Beach would typify the
sort of long-term measures needed to keep our sea walls intact. The
coast defences at West Beach are made up of a three elements: groynes,
shingle, and the sea wall itself. Each element is essential and needs to
be kept in place.
Without groynes, the shingle at West Beach would quickly drift westwards
by the process of longshore drift. This is caused by the waves hitting
the beach at a slight angle. They draw down some shingle with each wave,
and push it back up a little further along the beach. 24/7, the shingle
ever so slowly moves westwards. The groynes split the beach into small
sections, so that the shingle builds up on the western side of each
section, but can’t easily go any further. Over time some does get lost,
but if it is regularly topped up that doesn’t matter...however, West
Beach was last topped up some 20 years ago.
The shingle forms the slope of the beach, where (in a healthy coast
defence) the waves break and expend their energy. Look at East Beach –
the shingle there is where it should be, almost at the top of the sea
wall. At West Beach the shingle has largely gone, having been allowed to
disappear without being topped up. As a result the final element of the
coast defence, the sea wall, is vulnerable to collapse because its
foundations are exposed and the full energy of the waves hits it. In a
healthy coast defence, the sea wall is simply a “backstop” to the
shingle (and stops erosion, flooding or damage when there are severe
storms).
The West Beach works would mean that the lost shingle would be replaced
(“recharged”). Any damaged groynes would be repaired. Boulders would be
used to provide additional protection to the base of the sea wall. A
system of recycling the shingle would be put into place, so when
longshore drift moved it to the westernmost end of West Beach (the
Coastguard station), it would be carried back to the eastern end. This
way we keep the “recharged” shingle in front of the sea wall, even
though it continually moves, ever so slowly, from one end of the
frontage to the other.
Fingers crossed for bid, the outcome may be known by the end of June.