'Shingle all the way' at Seaford beach this winter
Shingle recycling work at Sussex beach will help reduce the risk of coastal flooding.
Up to 60,000 cubic metres of shingle is moved to maintain protection to homes and businesses around Seaford.
The twice-yearly maintenance work on Seaford beach maintains protection for the town from coastal flooding.
The beach provides a soft-engineered flood defence that reduces the impact of high tides and storms on the seafront. This essential work has been identified as the most cost-effective method for maintaining the 4 kilometre shingle beach.
Nick Gray, flood and coastal risk manager at the Environment Agency for Sussex, said:
Sea levels are projected to rise by more than one metre in southern England over this century, and with more frequent, powerful storms also predicted, the risk of increased coastal erosion and flooding is likely.
As we enter the winter months, it is essential that the shingle beach is maintained to ensure it continues to provide protection to homes and businesses in Seaford.
Over time, natural coastal processes along the beach move shingle away from the central section of the beach to the north-west at West Beach, and south-east at Splash Point, depending on prevailing wind and wave direction.
To maintain the required standard of protection along the full length of the frontage, the Environment Agency typically moves up to 60,000 cubic metres of shingle in each recycling phase, back to the centre of the beach. The shingle is loaded from an excavator into lorries, which then transport the material to where it is needed. Bulldozers then position the material into the beach profile.
The Environment Agency puts beach shingle evenly back in place after bad weather to help protect resorts like Seaford from flooding
Residents living in a flood-risk area are urged to check their flood risk, sign up for free flood warnings and keep up to date with the latest situation at https://www.gov.uk/check-flood-risk, call Floodline on 0345 988 1188 or follow @EnvAgencySE on Twitter for the latest flood updates.
- The beach is carefully monitored, and regular surveys are done, to provide information on shingle volumes and locations.
- The work will take 5 weeks to complete. It started on 7 November and will finish on Friday 9 December.
- Between 2015 and 2021, the Environment Agency invested more than £1.2 billion as part of our the £2.6 billion programme to better-protect 170,000 properties from coastal flooding. This included funding of £318.2 million for 190 schemes led by coastal protection authorities.