Tendring District Council have spent £347,155.38 on surveys into state of sea wall at Holland since 2002 according to TDC’s reponse to a FOI request.
Around £35000/year doesn’t seem that much compared to the £27million which is being touted as the amount required to repair the sea wall and replace the groynes in order to safeguard the beach and indeed Clacton, for the next 100 years.
BUT
An earlier FOI request, which I described in this post Money Spent On Wooden Groynes At Holland Walton And Frinton Since 2004 showed £39,642.38 had been spent from 2004-5 to 2009-10.
In other words roughly 10 times the amount spent on repairing groynes had been spent on surveys.
The Cost Of Not Maintaining Breakwaters At Holland-on-Sea, tells how TDC have spent £9,341,237.89 in the 10 years to 2011 almost all of it on emergency repairs to the sea wall at Holland and Clacton.
The most recent survey, by Mott MacDonald, cost around £60,000.
Para 5.1.3 on page 4-39 of this Mott MacDonald report from 2009
5.1.3 Clacton
The timber groynes at Clacton have such a high maintenance cost and are nearing the end of their lifespan that the Tendring Council have stopped trying to maintain them leading to major beach erosion and knock on issues.
Apparently building work is not scheduled to start until at least 2015
and funding has not been definitely secured yet.
The next step, as far as I know, is another survey.
I find it hard to not to believe that some people would rather the problem persists as this leads to a continuing round of reports and meetings – all of which paid for by the taxpayer (i.e. us).
No Groynes Means No Beach
Unless there a properly designed, properly built and properly maintained groynes there will be not beach.
If there is not beach the sea will continue to erode the sea wall.
This means the £9,341,237.89 or whatever which has been spent in emergency repairs to the sea wall has largely been wasted – repairing the sea wall does not stop the sea eroding it.
Proper groynes ensure a bank of dry sand builds up in front of the sea wall which prevents the sea from reaching the wall, hence stopping the erosion.
You can see examples of this at
- Walton by the coast guard station
- Clacon south of the pier
- Seawick
Seawick is a good example to look at as most of the groynes are about 90 paces apart – and there is a good bank of dry sand in front of the wall. But at the location of Alan Underwood’s shop there is about 180 pace space. Here there is very little sand in front of the wall and the sea is eroding the ramp which leads onto the beach.
