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Campaign for Coastal Defence
From Selsey Life: Public meeting and AGM
April 2010
Many thanks to those who turned out on a cold March evening to attend our AGM, at Selsey Town Hall. A series of presentations were given by members of the SOS committee, including Richard Dearsley, Brian Rainer and Roland O’Brien.
These updated members on the situation at the East and West Beach frontages, Medmerry, and the current state of play of our statutory coastal plans (the Coast Defence Strategy, and the higher-level Shoreline Management Plan).
We’ve covered some of these issues in recent editions. The headline story is that the government estimates it will cost £30m over the next 20 years to maintain Selsey Town’s coast defences, and that government funding is “unlikely”. Set against this, the coastal maintenance works that have been done in the past few years are relatively modest, but without them we would be in a much, much worse position. At East Beach, the District Council has completed repairs to the groynes which should mean they last at least a further 10 years.
At West Beach, the Council secured funding to carry out a £30k study into replacing the shingle that has been lost from the beach. This is Selsey’s most vulnerable frontage - in places the sea wall is at risk of being undermined, as beach levels drop. This is because the shingle drifts westwards, but in recent years it has not been replaced naturally by the periodic “pulses” of shingle that used to come ashore in this area. For some reason, they have stopped.
It’s a “no-brainer” that replacing shingle on the beach (“recharge”, in the jargon) is a solution. Usually in such circumstances the shingle is collected when it gets to the “downdrift” end of the frontage, and put back to work again, in a continuous recycling scheme. The funding will only pay for the feasibility study – such studies are nearly always required, and don’t come cheap. Unfortunately, the “recharge” would cost an awful lot more, at a time when government is looking to cut spending.
This suggests SOS will have plenty of work to do. Fortunately we have some stalwart supporters such as those who came to the AGM, some of whom contributed very generously to the donation box (many thanks!). We hope to see them - and many of you - at this summer’s events, the first of which is Sea Selsey.