Seaton to bid for £2 million lottery funding

Go-ahead given to try and secure cash

A bid for nearly £2 million in National Lottery funding will be made in a bid to amplify an East Devon town’s “natural crown jewels”.

The cash would help develop Seaton Wetlands as the town’s flagship site for nature, with a new visitor hub, bird hide and accessible paths leading from the town’s main car park and linking to the restored Sheep’s Marsh, Salt Plot and Church Plot nature sites.

The aim would be to restore 10 hectares of saltmarsh habitat by reconnecting Sheep’s Marsh to the Axe estuary, and create 12 hectares of freshwater grazing marsh at Salt Plot.

Seaton Museum’s natural history collection would also be reinvigorated as part of the overarching Wild About Seaton plan.

Decisionmakers at East Devon District Council gave the go-ahead for officers to work up a formal bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund of £1.92 million, and noted that match funding from various bodies would also be secured.

Officer James Chubb told cabinet that a partnership had been created to steer the project, including involving the Seaton Tramway and Seaton Museum.

Some of the initial work on planning the scheme was funded from the receipts of the sale of the Seaton Jurassic building, which was bought for an undisclosed sum by Seaton Tramway.

“The development of Wild About Seaton would include a trail and app, guiding people around the natural crown jewels of the town, via the Undercliffs National Nature Reserve, through the wetlands and extending down to the South West coastpath to Beer Quarry and Caves,” he said.

Mr Chubb added Seaton Museum’s natural history exhibit, which was “rather tired” would get a boost, while “enhanced engagement and an events programme” would encourage people to the area.

“The main outputs would be habitat creation at the southern end of the wetlands with 7 hectares of intertidal habitat created behind the seawall, which is a big civil engineering project, and 12 hectares of fresh water grazing marsh, which is a really important factor from a tourism perspective as it will create a southerly entrance to the reserve.”

A report to the cabinet noted that an initial visitor number target for the nature reserves on the Axe estuary was 70,000 per year, but that this had been significantly exceeded by the 124,000 visitors last year.

The cabinet heard that the deadline for the National Lottery application was the end of May, with a decision likely to be made in August. If successful, Mr Chubb suggested there could be a year of development work, with the project completed around three years after that.

Councillor Dan Ledger (Independent, Seaton), welcomed what had been “years of work”.

“This is a culmination of a really robust and strong plan, with stakeholder engagement,” he said, adding his thanks to the team that had worked on the project.

Others noted that it was “brilliant” for biodiversity, the economy and tourism.

Mr Chubb added that intertidal habitats also had the benefit of being “extremely carbon hungry” meaning they were positive for carbon sequestration.