Bournemouth OKs Coastal Protection Plan

The Bournemouth Council’s Cabinet approved yesterday a beach management project worth £43.7 million that will provide coastal protection for Bournemouth for the next 100 years.

The Bournemouth Beach Management Study sets out a 17-year plan of beach replenishment and groyne renewal. Bournemouth’s beaches will be subject to regular replenishment with approximately 210,000m3 of replenishment materials added every three years to keep the beach topped up at its target volume.

A groyne renewal program will also be undertaken as part of the project to improve performance, protect the seawall and prevent the loss of beach material.

Councillor David Smith, Cabinet Member for Planning and Environment, said: “Without intervention Bournemouth could face the loss of more than 3,000 homes to coastal erosion as well as drastic changes to the appearance of the coastline and the local environment, with a subsequent impact on our tourism economy.”

Bournemouth is built on a coastline which is currently eroding at approximately 1 metre per year. Seawalls and groynes have been built for over 100 years to protect the cliff and cliff-top properties and beach replenishment has been used as a form of coast protection for 45 years.

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