Further delays to Sidmouth’s beach protection plan

The latest cliff fall by the river mouth in Sidmouth. Photo by Terry Ife. Ref shs 3799-31-14TI To order your copy of this photograph go to www.sidmouthherald.co.uk and click on myphotos24

Stephen SumnerMonday, August 18, 2014
5:12 PM

A FUTURE strategy to protect Sidmouth’s shores has suffered further setbacks as driving forces need to uncover ‘critical’ information from the early 1990s on the town’s current sea defences.

East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) consultants say they cannot proceed with the Beach Management Plan (BMP) until they know whether the existing rock groynes are working properly, writes Stephen Sumner.

They need to dig out documents dating back 25 years so the meeting of the group steering the £75,000 project has been postponed until February – leaving concerned residents by the rapidly eroding Pennington Point clinging on even longer for a solution.

Councillor Andrew Moulding, who chairs the BMP steering group, said: “The success of this project depends on our current consultants developing a sound understanding of the coastal processes, the environmental constraints and opportunities, and most of all the history of the development of Sidmouth’s sea defences and their design rationale. That requires reliable information about the design history of the sea defences that the council does not possess, so we asked the consultants who designed and built the defences to help.”

EDDC is waiting as Royal Haskoning, the engineering consultants that drew up the previous plan, delve years into their archives to find the necessary documents. It had revealed in April that the plan was not due to be completed until the same time next year – and these new delays look set to push that back further.

The aims of the BMP are to maintain the existing defences and to reduce the rate of beach and cliff erosion to an agreed historic rate.

It is being drawn up with the Environment Agency, Devon County Council, Sidmouth Town Council, the South West Strategic Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme and the Cliff Road Action Group.

Further delays to Sidmouth’s beach protection plan - News - Sidmouth Herald

Here's a very useful overview of the reports which have been drawn up over the last two decades:

List of reports produced for East Devon District Council EDDC on cliff erosion and related matters, at Sidmouth, East Devon.

List of Sidmouth Beach Reports, as supplied to the SeeRed author by EDDC, autumn 2009.

EDDC were asked in June/July 2009 to supply the costs to the public purse of each of these reports.
As of February 2010 this information had still not been produced.

In late February 2010 EDDC confirmed that they had no data prior to 2002 (this having all been destroyed as part of 'efficiency' procedures). This is confirmed in emails dated Feb 2010 here.

Report Name	Date	Cost £ (at the time)	Cost £ (2010 value)
Coast Protection, Sidmouth, Clifton Beach – Lewis & Duvivier for EDDC	Dec 1980	data destroyed
Report on Coastal Protection at Sidmouth – Posford Duvivier for EDDC	Feb 1990	data destroyed
Coast Protection at Sidmouth, Phase 2. Interim Report – Posford Duvivier for EDDC	May 1991	data destroyed
Sidmouth, Devon Mobile Bed Physical Model Study. Report EX 2607 – HR Wallingford for EDDC	August 1992	data destroyed
Coast Protection at Sidmouth, Phase 2. Engineers Report – Posford Duvivier for EDDC	October 1992	data destroyed
Sidmouth, Devon Effects on Tidal Currents of a Proposed Coastal Defence Scheme. Report EX 2779 – HR Wallingford for EDDC	March 1993	data destroyed
Proposed Coast Protection at Sidmouth, Phase 2. Statement of Case for Carrying Out the Works, Local Investigation – Posford Duvivier for EDDC	June 1993	data destroyed
Sidmouth Emergency Works, Engineers Report – Posford Duvivier for EDDC	November 1993	data destroyed
Sidmouth Coastal Protection Phase 2. Port Royal Pumping Station, Sidmouth Sewage Storage Tank. Inspection Report. – Posford Duvivier for EDDC	March 1994	data destroyed
Sidmouth, Devon Effects on Tidal Currents and Sewage Effluent Dispersion of a Planned Coastal Defence Scheme. Report EX 2973 – HR Wallingford for EDDC	April 1994	data destroyed
A Preliminary Appraisal of the Cliffs and of an Associated Tunnel on the Coast to The East of Sidmouth, East Devon. Report No 1663 – Frederick Sherrell Ltd for the National Trust and EDDC.	February 1995	data destroyed
Sidmouth Pennington Point Coastal Study – Posford Duvivier for EDDC	July 2001	data destroyed
Environmental Statement. Coast Protection Pennington Point Sidmouth – Royal Haskoning for EDDC	December 2002	23,154
Sidmouth Beach Management Plan. Summary Report 5 – Royal Haskoning for EDDC	June 2003	5,142
Sidmouth Beach Management Plan. Summary Report 6 – Royal Haskoning for EDDC	November 2003	5,157
Sidmouth Beach Management Plan. Summary Report 7 – Royal Haskoning for EDDC	May 2004	5,629
Sidmouth Beach Management Plan. Summary Report 9 – Royal Haskoning for EDDC	August 2005	6,765
Sidmouth Beach Management Plan. Summary Report 10 – Royal Haskoning for EDDC	November 2005	4,454
Sidmouth Beach Management Plan. Summary Report – Royal Haskoning for EDDC	October 2007	8,000
Pennington Point Cliff Erosion Review – Royal Haskoning for EDDC.	Awaited - 2010
Total cost to date (largely unknowable because data has been destroyed by EDDC)		£	£

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List of reports produced for East Devon District Council EDDC on cliff erosion at Sidmouth
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Monday, 18 August 2014

Sidmouth Beach Management Plan: "reports will not be available for discussion until next February": more news, more information

Further delays to Sidmouth’s beach protection plan

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