Donation box installed on Sidmouth seafront to protect town from cliff falls

A donation box installed on Sidmouth seafront that has been removed for maintenance will not be reinstated as the repairs are ‘too costly’.

Last April, East Devon District Council installed the donation box and its accompanying explanatory sign to help visitors understand the role of the beach in flooding and coastal erosion.

The council’s preferred option to protect the town from cliff falls is construct one or possibly two additional rock groynes on East Beach, as well as the shortening of the River Sid training wall and the ongoing importation of new shingle as well as ongoing recycling of existing shingle.

Defra will fund £5.7million of the scheme, but a further £3.3million of partnership funding is required for the programme, and the donation box and its accompanying explanatory sign had been placed on Sidmouth seafront.

A spokesman said: “The donation box for Sidmouth’s Beach Management Scheme is not in its usual place because it has been removed for maintenance. The donation box was installed was installed at the request of the Sidmouth Beach Management Plan funding sub-group to raise awareness for the need for local contributions towards funding to put in place a scheme to protect the town from flooding and to reduce erosion.”

The council’s consultants have also been testing different numbers, lengths and positions of groynes on East Beach, using computer models that simulate shingle movement, as well as by using real life examples of shingle behaving in similar situations nearby.

The aim here is to use groynes to hold a beach in front of the cliffs, which would be of a similar height to the beach behind the breakwaters at the Western end of Sidmouth Beach.