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Coastal defence

Service Deliverer: Havant Borough Council
Contact: Please call at Reception in the Civic Offices Foyer. Enquiries may be made Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm.
Telephone No: Customer Services on 023 9244 6013
Address: Havant Borough Council, Civic Offices, Civic Centre Road, Havant, PO9 2AX
Email: customer.services@havant.gov.uk
Details:
The Council surveys and carries out research relating to coast protection and sea defence; designs and supervises new sea defence and coast protection projects; arranges and supervises coastal protection works and advises private individuals on minor problems with coast protection and flooding where these are the consultee's responsibility.
 
The Borough is a coastal district and has a coastline of 48 kilometres which it maintains with the help of land owners whose land adjoins the shoreline.
 
The Coast Protection Act 1949 and the Land Drainage Act 1991, provide maritime Councils with permissive powers to carry out coastal defence works. Coastal defence is an encompassing term for both coast protection and sea defence; where coast protection is the protection of the land from erosion and sea defence is the defence against sea and tidal flooding.
 
The aim is to reduce the risks to people and the developed and natural environment from flooding and coastal erosion by encouraging the provision of technically, environmentally and economically sound and sustainable defence measures along the entire 45 km coastline contained within the Borough.
 
This is achieved by undertaking a number of functions:
  • ensure the development of strategic plans for the future management of the coastline and ensure their implementation.
  • ensure that any development within the coastal zone does not adversely effect the environment.
  • ensure that any development within the coastal zone does not disrupt natural processes, such as the transport of sediment along the shoreline.
  • avoid committing future generations to inflexible and expensive options for coastal defence.
  • Monitoring the evolution of the coastline and the forcing parameters affecting it.
 
The Borough also protects its assets against coastal erosion and inundation from the sea, without conflicting with the above.
 
A major task is the production of Management Plans in association with the Environment Agency. The East Hayling Plan, Beach Management Plan, and Shoreline Management Plan all contribute to the continuing maintenance of the Borough's assets and protection of property. The Plans are used to provide the framework within which maintenance works and new schemes are carried out, and Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) awards grants towards this work based on the Strategies contained within the Plans.
 
The financing of construction or maintenance works is met from the Councils revenue budgets, although where appropriate the Council receives a large proportion of the project's cost in the form of grant aid assistance from DEFRA. The grant aid assistance is awarded when a scheme is considered to have clear economic benefits to society. Hampshire County Council has also contributed to the funding of several projects undertaken within the Borough.
 
How do tides work? Find out why the time of high tide changes every day, and why the tide comes in further some days than others.
 
CHIMET provides 'real time' tide, wind and temperature data from Chichester Bar Beacon
 
The coastal Asset database holds details of all features of the Borough's 48km coast from recent surveys.
 
The Coastal Defence Team is a small group of officers who manage the Borough’s coastline. They have a wealth of local knowledge and experience of the coastal problems particular to our coastline
 
Who is responsible for carrying out sea defence and coast protection work, and what is the statutory (legal) framework?
 
The East Solent Shoreline Management Plan is the main policy document under which the Council and partners carry out works to the coastline
 
A case study of the management of the beach frontage at Eastoke, Hayling Island
 
Flood Risk Assessments are used to inform the Coastal Team of the impact of carrying out (or not) proposed schemes. Copies of recent Assessments available here, as well as the Strategic Flood Risk Assesment (SFRA) covering the whole of the Urban South Hampshire area
 
View an animation of how the Solent came to be, forming the Isle of Wight as sea levels rose after the Ice Age.
 
Some of the recent coastal defence projects carried out by the Council, including the regular recycling of shingle at Eastoke
 
For more than 15 years, the Solent Forum has provided a platform to deliver Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the Solent sub-region of the South East. It operates at a strategic coastal management level, providing a network for closer working relationships, information dissemination and discussion of topical coastal issues.
 
Strategies are sets of documents which consider the various options available for managing sections of the coastline, and propose a solution which is economically, socially and environmentally acceptable within the restraints which apply to that location.
 
Why we do what we do.... some of the problems we used to have at Hayling, which we want to avoid happening again in the future