A vital £1million plus scheme to strengthen crumbling sea walls at Holland-on-Sea has been given the green light.

Tendring District Council (TDC) put forward a programme of works for the York Road area.

The project has now received the necessary funding clearance from the Environment Agency following a meeting last month and the aim is to start on site in September.

Planning permission for the scheme is already in place.

The total cost of the work is £1.139 million and it will be completed before the end of March 2010. It includes replacing the sea wall with a new concrete stepped defence to repel wave action and reduce erosion.

The whole initiative will use the successful process of repairs which were undertaken less than a mile away in the Hazlemere Road area of the town.

That scheme has now been completed and access to that area of the lower promenade was restored earlier this month.

Charlie Sambridge, Cabinet Member for Technical and Procurement Services at TDC, said he was delighted that the Environment Agency had approved the project at York Road.

“We now have confirmation that the work can go ahead and that the money is in place to do so,” he said.

“The aim is to get on with this scheme as soon as possible and we plan to start work on September 14.”

Cllr Sambridge said that the loss of beach material over the last two years has left the defences in danger of collapse in this section of the lower promenade.

Mark Johnson, Area Coastal Manager for the Environment Agency, said the Agency is really pleased to see further work going ahead at Holland-on-Sea.

“Together with the completed works at Hazlemere Road and Jaywick to the south, around £13 million will have been invested on coastal defences on the Tendring Peninsula since 2008,” he added.

The Council has already started to identify other areas where work will be needed in the near future.

The next critical section is from Cliff Road to York Road in Holland-on-Sea and the programme there will cost around £2million.

Following inspections along the coastline TDC is also earmarking a stretch of sea wall at Holland Haven, next to Gunfleet Boating Club, for attention in the near future.

FEARS have been raised that a sea wall and even a road could collapse because of dredging work being carried out.

Don Barker, of Harbour Crescent, Harwich, used to work as a coastal protection worker for Tendring Council. About 20 years ago he helped remove roughly a 400-yard stretch of groynes between the end of Barrack Lane, Dovercourt, and a ramp on Harwich beach. The area was due to be regroyned and recharged with sand, but Mr Barker said this never happened. Now he fears if something is not done, the road he lives in could fall victim to the sea.

He said: “Up until now we have lost about 4ft of sand and infill, and the footings of the wall are being undercut.

“The beach is just going. Because of the dredging at Felixstowe, all the soft stuff is being dragged over there and Harwich beach is getting lower and lower.

“One day the wall will collapse. It might not be in my lifetime but that wall will collapse.

“Right behind the promenade is Harbour Crescent.

“If the sea wall goes, the promenade and then the road will go, but no-one seems to want to do anything about it,” he added.

“Simple solution – regroyne the area and recharge the beach,” he said.

Nigel Brown, Tendring Council’s communications manager, said the council carried out work to stabilise those particular defences opposite Harbour Crescent about two years ago.

“The council continues to monitor the structures regularly, as it does elsewhere along the Tendring coastline,” he said.

“A great deal of money has been spent in Harwich reinforcing the sea defences and this particular site is not a priority concern at this time.

“There are other areas of the district’s sea defences which are currently in greater need of attention, and efforts are being made to secure the funding needed to carry out this work.”

Story by Andrea Collitt in the Gazette

A £1.2million scheme to improve coastal defences has been branded a “sticking plaster job” by a leading councillor who warned that more cash was needed for a bigger project.

The work on the sea wall at the end of Hazlemere Road in Holland-on-Sea has been approved by the Environment Agency and funded by the Government after Tendring District Council made a successful bid for a grant.

At a cost of £1.2m work will begin on a new concrete defence with a beach access ramp in October and will be completed by April next year.

But Harry Shearing, portfolio holder for technical and procurement services at Tendring District Council, said although he welcomed the success of the bid it was “not the long term solution.”

“It certainly should not be seen as the answer to the problems at Holland-on-Sea and along other parts of the Tendring coastline,” he said. “This really is the bare minimum that is required just to hold things together.

“It is, as I have said before, a sticking plaster job and is not the long term solution.”

His comments were backed up by Clacton MP Douglas Carswell who said millions of pounds were still needed for the sea defences and that he would continue pressing the Government for the money.

“I’m pleased that we have got this extra cash to repair the sea walls, but the campaign to ensure that a proper set of defences are built must go on,” said Mr Carswell.

Mr Shearing said that the council would continue to press the Environment Agency for a £24m project which was approved by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in 2004 before the responsibility was passed on to the Environment Agency.

He added: “We will not give up the fight to get the funding needed for a major scheme but in the meantime this work will help to prevent further collapse of the sea wall along this particular part of the coastline.”

Mark Johnson, flood risk manager for the Environment Agency, said that he was “really pleased” that the £1.2m scheme would be starting shortly.

“Whilst this is progressing the Environment Agency will continue to work closely with Tendring District Council and community representatives to seek an affordable longer term solution for the frontage,” he said.

Story by Annie Davidson in the East Anglian Daily Times