Futures Forum: Sidmouth Beach Management Plan Steering Group - report
an open day will be held from 3pm to 6.30 on Thursday 6th March at the Sailing Club on the Esplanade:
Futures Forum: Sidmouth Beach Management Plan Steering Group... "help by providing local knowledge and information..." Community Engagement event at Sidmouth Sailing Club on 6th March
This will be a very timely meeting - according to the Vision Group's Futures Forum representative on the Steering Group:
After the recent beach structural damage I wonder
where the EDDC BMP Steering Group will now head.
> We have the concrete steps at West
beach - is this a BMP issue for repairs or is it an EDDC issue to make these
safe for visitors. Also the timber steps up to the ice cream cafe will need
replacing if the cafe is to survive.
> We have the under-cliff walkway
closed because of issues with the wall in Connaught Gardens - I guess the wall
isn’t really a BMP issue, but it means EDDC won’t be maintaining the walkway
underneath until the wall above is made safe. There is damage to the walkway
underneath.
>We have the side of the Ham breakwater
broken up on both sides to show some of the inner structure - how long
before this becomes a complete wreck. Should it be repaired?
>We have the fact that East beach is
now inaccessible from Sidmouth because of the lowering of the beach and removal
of the steps down from the gate. This is probably good for the safety of the
fossil hunters. Is there a sign at Weston mouth to indicate that there is no
exit at Sidmouth?
>We have the undermining of the Alma
Bridge footings and the landslip on the zig-zag path up the hill. Does this
mean that the SW Coast footpath will never again be instated at this position?
It lets Cllr Hughes off the hook because his promised design of the new Alma
bridge is really unbuildable now. So the money he had put aside for the
construction will now go - where? Was there money put aside in the first place?
>We have the land slips along the river
and the threatened fall of the rock slabs by the first upstream weir (the
cracks there are widening). This needs to be cleared as soon as possible so
that the river does not flood. Whose responsibility is this? EDDC or SWW? It
also lets DCC nicely off the hook because there really isn’t much point in
planning to construct a new weir close to the mouth of the Sid because this
would further undermine the eastern bank so that the road above would come
under threat.
I still hold very firmly to the belief that the best
thing that the Salcombe Hill Residents’ Association could do, both for
themselves and for Sidmouth, would be to put a row of garden sheds at the far
end of their gardens. Fill them with reinforcing and with a strong-mix concrete
and wait for them to fall to the beach below to form a natural rock revetment.
Natural England and the Jurassic Coast organisation could do nothing to stop
this as garden huts don’t need planning permission for outbuildings up to a
total of 10 sq mtres in plan. It is an opportunity to create a Mach-type art
installation on the beach below, just as Mach did in Kingston upon Thames. The
huts could form wind-breaks for planting much-needed trees in front as a visual
screen in their gardens and to soak up the surface water which further
destabilises the cliffs. If people didn’t want to “go modern” with this sort of
installation art, then they could equally well construct a giant rockery at the
end of their gardens - again without needing planning permission. Perhaps the
Keith Owen Fund would make a donation to Salcombe Hill householders who did
this?
What should be done about the planned BMP public
consultation event? I think people would rather laugh at it at the moment until
some of the points above are publicly commented on or repair work is started.
Jo Frith
Sidmouth
27th February 2014
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