DORSET’S Jurassic Coast is set to benefit from a £376,500 cash injection to help combat erosion and rising sea levels posed by climate change.

Dorset County Council environment chiefs teamed up with their East Devon counterparts to bid for a share of millions of pounds of Government cash.

The cash will be used on projects to benefit Preston Beach in Weymouth, Ringstead, Charmouth, Seatown and Swanage. (more…)

FLOOD defences and the future shape of the Dorset coastline will come under the spotlight with a series of road shows next week.

Residents across Purbeck, Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and the New Forest have been invited to view the Shoreline Management Plan (SMS), which covers the coastline from Hurst Spit to Durlston Head.

The blueprint, which is now being consulted on, is one of 49 plans across the country which will help the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs form their flood and coastal defence strategies for decades to come.

It takes on particular significance this week after the devastation caused by widespread flooding in Cumbria. (more…)

BOURNEMOUTH’S Hengistbury Head heritage site will continue to erode and eventually disappear if nothing is done to protect it, a report has predicted.

Part, if not all, of the Site of Scientific Interest could be lost over the next 100 to 200 years as nature takes its toll on the coastline.

The report commissioned by Bournemouth Borough Council is part of their Shoreline Management Plan and looks at whether they should be protecting the coastline in the short term. (more…)

MEMBERS of the public can have their say on long term plans to protect the South Devon coastline.

Organisations involved in coastal management, sea defences and erosion across a large (400km) section of South Devon and Dorset are working together as a coastal group to produce a shoreline management plan.

Graeme Smith, chairman of the group, said: “Individuals, organisations and businesses can contribute their views on how and where we should defend the South Devon and Dorset coastline.

“People will have a say in how the local coastline is managed and defended for the next 100 years.”

The coastal group, which is led by Teignbridge Council, is running a public consultation on the plan until Friday, July 24. For more information visit www.sdadcag.org

Story in This is South Devon

EXMOUTH residents get the chance to have their say on major plans that could eventually see Queens Drive ‘moved’ back to combat coastal erosion.

The Shoreline Management Plan is part of a national drive to shore-up Britain’s coastal defences over the next 100-years, and a series of public events will be held in June.

All the agencies involved in coastal management, sea defences and erosion across a 400km section of the South Devon and Dorset Coast are working together. (more…)

THE public can have their say on long-term plans for the South Devon and Dorset coastline in a series of consultation events in June.

The South Devon and Dorset Coastal Group’s production of a shoreline management plan will affect Sidmouth and other East Devon coastal towns in the future.

The nearest drop-in event to Sidmouth is at Bridport Leisure Centre on Wednesday, June 3, from 2pm to 6pm.

Alan Rafelt of the Environment Agency said it was important to plan for the future: “As a result of climate change, the coastline will be subject to rising sea level and more frequent storms.”

Check out the group’s website: www.sdadcag.org for more information.

Story on the Devon24 website

With such a strong national and international focus on the tough economic climate, it would seem attention has, in many quarters, been drawn away from the previous hot topic – climate change.

While the storm clouds of recession have prompted robust remedial action by many authorities, we overlook the longer-term issue of our environment at our peril. This has been driven home this month as Teignbridge, on behalf of 12 local authorities across the South West, led the initial dissemination of findings which will shape the future of our coastline and its communities – the Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) 2. (more…)

Coastal defences that currently protect huge swathes of farm land, natural habitat and housing are to be moved inland, allowing the sea to flood into low-lying areas.

In some parts of the country, householders and land owners have been told they face spending millions of pounds of their own money to build and repair flood defences to try to protect their property. (more…)

It’s a bright sunny day in Studland, Dorset. The wind catches the sand and whips it through the dunes and grasses. Helped by the tides, as each grain moves the shoreline slowly but inevitably shifts.

Emma Wright has worked for the National Trust at Studland for the past seven years.

As we walked along the beach she explained she had become used to seeing areas of the beach swept away.

In November it took just one storm for the sea to reclaim 15 metres of the beach.

Emma showed me red and white hazard tape flapping next to some wooden posts – these were all that remained of the wooden steps once used to access the car park.

“It’s just the vegetation left which is holding the dune together and you can see it cracking all the way through.

“That will be just another chunk of dune grass to fall off into the sea with the next storm”, she says. (more…)

ECONOMICALLY important beaches in some populated parts of Devon could be lost to the sea if flood defences are retained over the next 50 years, a report suggests.

Popular coastal resorts such as Teignmouth could lose their miles of golden sand because of tidal erosion if their “hard” sea defences are maintained, according to the Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) for Devon and Dorset. (more…)