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Sidmouth cliff fall

More of the crumbling cliffs at Pennington Point crash into the sea.

This week there has been another smaller cliff fall further along the East Beach.

East Devon District Council do have plans to protect the cliffs from falling into the sea, with their preferred option being to construct 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.

The Sidmouth and East Beach Management Scheme’s aim is to maintain the 1990’s Sidmouth Coastal Defence Scheme Standard of Service, as well as to reduce the rate of beach and cliff erosion to the east of the River Sid (East Beach) in an integrated, justifiable and sustainable way.

By importing new shingle onto Sidmouth Beach and raising the existing splash wall, the amount of water overtopping the promenade can be captured, preventing the water flooding low lying areas in the town centre. On East Beach, by using the new groyne to hold a larger shingle beach, wave action against the toe of the cliffs can be reduced.

The scheme presented by Royal HaskoningDHV is a result of extensive testing of groynes, beach profiles and splash wall heights using computer simulations of waves and shingle, which have been validated against records and observed beach behaviour to provide the necessary assurance to the Environment Agency for funding approval.

The current estimated cost of the project is around £9m over its entire lifespan and that around £5.7m is expected to be funded by central government, leaving a funding gap of around £3.3m

The next steps of the project are to finalise the Preferred Option and obtain approval for the Outline Business Case that is required to obtain funding for the Detailed Design Stages. It is expected to be submitted to the Government by the summer and if approved, work could begin in 2019.

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