Sidmouth Beach Management Plan delayed

A view of the eroded cliffs from one of the gardens in Cliff Road Sidmouth. Photo by Terry Ife

Stefan GordonTuesday, April 22, 2014
5:30 PM

A BLUEPRINT to safeguard to Sidmouth seafront – and to pinpoint a solution to reduce rapid erosion at Pennington Point – has been delayed by three months.

The project team behind the Beach Management Plan (BMP) this week announced that work to collect data will take longer than expected.

Discovery of ‘vital’ historical beach management data held by an external consultant has been highlighted as one of the reasons for the ‘slippage’.

East Devon District Council, leading the £75,000 project, says it could be ‘some time’ before this material can be provided and analysed.

A working group managing the scheme now calculates that the information gathering exercise will take up to three months longer than was originally thought.

It has postponed its next meeting from May to September.

Councillor Andrew Moulding, who chairs the BMP steering group, said: “In the course of the data review for this project we have identified other reports related to the Beach Management Plan which we need to review in order to maintain the quality of the project and ensure the end result is the right one. This data review has delayed the overall project by around three months, which means the next Steering Group meeting to look at the baseline information for the plan will be delayed until September, with project completion now estimated to happen around April 2015.

“It’s unfortunate that there will be a slight delay in this project. But we need to ensure that we are being thorough in examining all the historial data. If that means a delay in order to enrich the final stock of information then it will be worth the wait”.

He added the missing historical data is vital in helping the current team understand the design standards of the most recent coastal protection schemes. This in turn will help them to decide on any new beach management processes or physical structures.

Sidmouth Beach Management Plan delayed - News - Sidmouth Herald
Beach Management Plan delayed by three months | Sidmouth Independent News

The next meeting of the Steering Group will be in September:

EAST Devon District Council has announced that a vital data gathering project for a cliff erosion protection plan in Sidmouth, has been delayed.

In November, East Devon District Council announced the start of a 12-month data gathering phase with a view to creating a Beach Management Plan. The start of the project was implemented two years after district council cabinet members backed a move for a scheme, following a campaign by residents on Cliff Road.

The aim of the council-backed beach management plan is to ensure the maintenance and improving of the town’s coastal defences to reduce the rate of erosion.

The next meeting of the steering group has been postponed from May and will instead take place in September. The project completion date is now estimated to be April 2015.

Delay announced over Sidmouth cliff erosion protection plan | Exeter Express and Echo

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View From Online - News from West Dorset, East Devon & South Somerset
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1 comment:

Jo said...: This is another example of East Devon District Council poor communication and management. The Steering Group members, apart from the Chair Councillor Moulding, were kept in the dark about this change of plan until they read about it in the press. Even the EDDC secretary of the Steering Group was kept in the dark. It is insulting to the rest of the Steering Group members that the press communication was made in the name of the Group as a whole. It is quite obvious that the Steering Group is not viewed as having any role in terms of "Steering" this project. So what is its purpose? Possibly just to keep concerned members of the public quiet for a bit.; 23 April 2014 at 06:03