Sidmouth Beach Management Plan: an 'insight into the workings of EDDC'

The Sidmouth BMP met up this week, and there have not as yet been any 'official' District Council minutes or press release from this meeting.

However, the Vision Group's representative has produced a report:
Futures Forum: Sidmouth Beach Management Plan: finalising the reports

Sidmouth District Councils were also in attendance. This is the report from Cllr Cathy Gardner:

Beach management plan

Written by Cathy Gardner on 15-Oct-2015. Posted in Cathy Gardner

I had some new experiences this week – attending a ‘think tank’ and a Sidmouth Beach Management Plan (BMP) Steering Group meeting. Think Tanks are informal discussions arranged by Portfolio Holders (Cabinet members given specific areas of responsibility like Economy or Tourism). I have no idea yet if there will be any actions as a result of the discussions on Monday (12/10/15) but Officers were present and some good ideas were put forward. The topic of this meeting was how to use grant money that the Council had received for supporting the local economy. The workings of EDDC are becoming clearer, if still frustrating.

The BMP meeting was very informative, although progress seems to have been slow. The Steering Group consists of a range of people, mostly not on EDDC although it is Chaired by Cllr Moulding (Axminster) who is Deputy Leader. An area of concern is Alma Bridge: continued erosion means that another solution will be needed soon. Even so it seems highly likely that the coastal path will be diverted over the footbridge at the ford at some point. There does not seem to be any urgency from DCC to start work on a long-term answer (probably with the bridge further inland than it is now). They seem to want to wait until the BMP process advances some more. Another challenge for the BMP is the quality of the data being used to estimate erosion rate. This is a historical problem as good data has only been recorded recently, however the inclusion of data that everyone agreed was wrong seems counter-intuitive. We will have to wait many more months before a plan is drafted and then more months before funding is found to start work.

I hope this insight into the workings of EDDC is informative.

Beach management plan « East Devon Alliance

These are the District Council's press releases from the last eighteen months, starting with the most recent:

Sidmouth’s coastal defence project moves forward as Beach Management Plan starts to take shape 22 July 2015This photograph of East Cliff was taken by the drone at lower altitude. If you look carefully you can see circular waves with their centre at the end of the river training wall. This is wave diffraction and it can cause erosion.

22 July 2015 - Sidmouth’s coastal defence project moves forward as Beach Management Plan starts to take shape - East Devon
24 March 2015 - Drone provides bird’s eye view of beach and cliffs - East Devon

'Be our eyes and ears' - steering group needs locals to help provide vital evidence for beach management plan 26 February 2015Can local people remember how the beaches and cliffs looked in the past?

26 February 2015 - 'Be our eyes and ears' - steering group needs locals to help provide vital evidence for beach management plan - East Devon
15 August 2014 - Beach Management project delayed to ensure vital information from 25 years ago is tracked down - East Devon
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