Shifting Shoreham shingle to reduce Lancing coastal flood risk
Source: gov.uk (2025-01-17)

Shingle recycling on the beach between Shoreham and Lancing to help reduce the risk of coastal flooding. Essential maintenance needed following winter storms.

Bulldozers are back on the beaches again to carry out vital shingle replenishment work throughout January between Shoreham and Lancing. This work will help give better protection to local communities from coastal flooding this winter.

Stormy weather has eroded the flood defence

Recent winter storms and gales have eroded some of the shingle beach in Lancing that provides a soft-engineered flood defence to the West Sussex frontage.

Following consultation between Shoreham Port Authority, Adur District Council and the local nature reserve, the Environment Agency has begun recycling shingle from the nature reserve area to replenish the Lancing beach.

The work to recycle suitable but limited material at Shoreham Fort will also include some shingle from the local nature reserve beach frontage, whilst carefully avoiding any environmental sensitive areas.

Environment Agency representatives will be available to interview about the coastal defence work outside the Perch Cafe, Brighton Road, Lancing Beach, BN15 8RA between 10am to 12 noon on Wednesday, 22 January.

Please confirm your attendance in advance by contacting the Environment Agency’s South East press office on xx-xxxx-xxxx.

Sea levels are projected to rise by more than a metre by 2100

Nick Gray, flood and coastal risk manager for Sussex at the Environment Agency, said:

We are taking shingle from Shoreham Fort and moving it along the beach to the eroded areas at Widewater at Lancing Beach Green.

Sea levels are projected to rise by more than one metre in the south of England over this century, and with more frequent powerful storms also predicted, the risk of increased coastal erosion and flooding is likely.

The shingle recycling will help to maintain the flood defences offered by the beach, and to provide the standard of protection required by the coastal defence scheme completed by the Environment Agency in partnership with Worthing Borough Council in 2005.

Enough shingle to fill the Albert Hall three times over

The Environment Agency will move approximately 20,000 tonnes of shingle from Shoreham to Lancing. This is enough shingle to fill the Albert Hall three times over.

The shingle is loaded into dump trucks by an excavator, which then transport the material along the beach frontage to where it is needed. Bulldozers then position the material into the beach profile.

Beach is still open

The beach will remain open, but the Environment Agency is advising the public to be cautious and keep a safe distance from working machinery.

Residents living in a flood-risk area are urged to check their flood-risk, sign-up for free flood warnings and keep up to date with the latest situation at https://www.gov.uk/check-flood-risk (https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fcheck-flood-risk&data=05%7C02%7CAndrew.Turton1%40defra.gov.uk%7C784a83f1e8fa469b1f6608dd36eaa2b9%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C0%7C0%7C638727103552557758%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3AOdEcB4B%2FvUF5%2B4kcXn%2FPOOxMbI6QrV9Swyl2MvL%2FM%3D&reserved=0), call Floodline on xx-xxxx-xxxx or follow @EnvAgencySE on Twitter, now known as X, for the latest flood updates.

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