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Campaign for Coastal Defence
Sept. 2010: Selsey Life – Wonderful news!
Some really wonderful news for Selsey! The Environment Agency has
approved funding for coastal defence works at West Beach Selsey, which
should help extend the life of the defences here for 10yrs.
West Beach has the most vulnerable bits of sea wall along Selsey’s coast
– so vulnerable that a “failure” was expected within a year. The sea
wall was built as part of a defensive system, comprising a sea wall, a
big shingle beach in front of it, and groynes. The shingle beach takes
most of the impact of the waves, most of the time. The wall is the
“backstop” defence, giving protection during extreme storms & high
tides. The groynes are there to stop the shingle slowly drifting along
and away from the beach, through the process of “longshore drift”.
Over the last 20 years at West Beach the groynes have got in a bad state
of repair, the shingle has been drifting away (towards the Witterings)
and none has been added. So the beach level has dropped, leaving the
wall completely bare to the sea (compare it to East Beach, where the
beach is so high it almost covers the wall). It was never designed to
work like this...without a shingle beach in front, it gets undermined
and sections of it can just fall into the sea (as happened in 2007).
The new funding is to allow the groynes to be repaired and raised, fresh
shingle to be imported (by boat), and the boulders along the toe of the
sea wall to be replenished where necessary.
This buys Selsey some time. The Environment Agency approved the funding
(£1.3m) as the “do minimum” option to keep the sea wall going for 10
years, on the basis that - combined with last year’s works at East Beach
- it gives Selsey the opportunity to work out how to pay for the major
long term maintenance & improvement our coast defences need. We’ve been
given this chance because the official Strategy is very clear: that
government funding is “unlikely” for the long term works (estimated cost
some £30m over the next 20 years! )
So, as well as thanking Chichester District Council for persevering with
the funding bid for these works - and the Environment Agency for
approving them - we have to take on board the fact that the authorities
are effectively saying , “from here on, it’s down to you”.
We have to grasp the breathing space this has given us, to sort out the
long term sustainable funding of our coast defences. SOS, and various
other coastal groups based in Selsey are working on this issue. It will
be a real challenge, but the government’s “Big Society” agenda (helping
communities to help themselves) may act in our favour, especially if we
pull together as a community.
Finally, the Environment Agency’s planning application for the coastal
realignment at Medmerry has been published.