As we saw dramatically last winter, the management of our beaches on Hayling is of great importance to us all. This blog follows the work of the Coastal Partnership team and is written by Dave Picksley Coastal Engineer

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October 2014

This Autumn Havant Borough Council will be undertaking beach management operations along the Hayling Island seafront in accordance with our Beach Management Plan for this area. We anticipate that works are due to commence the week beginning 20th October and last for approximately 3 weeks.  As with previous years, we will be recycling shingle from areas of accretion to the east and west of the Eastoke frontage, depositing it via trucks along the beach into the depleted groyne bays along the Eastoke frontage.

Beach Management comprises both Beach Recycling and Beach Nourishment.  For this operation we will be importing approximately 2,000m3 of additional material which will be delivered via road and stockpiled in the western half of Eastoke corner carpark. We anticipate this half of the carpark will be closed for a period of 2-3 weeks while the operation is completed.

Beach Nourishment (the import of beach material):
We will be importing approximately 2000m3 of material via road. We also anticipate to deliver approximately 10,000m3 of material to Eastoke via a dredger which will dredge the material from the Chichester Harbour entrance channel, working in conjunction with the Chichester Harbour Conservancy. This operation would be weather dependant and last for approximately 1 hour at each high water period over 2-3 days.

Beach Recycling (the moving of beach material from areas of accretion to depleted areas):
The council has appointed Les Searle Plant Hire and Sales Ltd to undertake the beach management works for this period. Heavy plant (such as dump trucks and excavators) will be on the beach for approximately 3 weeks from the 20th October. We have taken the decision to undertake beach works prior to the winter as the beach crest in many places is currently not at the desired design profile. Approximately 10,000m3 of material will be extracted from Eastoke Point and 'the Ness' area and transported back to the Eastoke frontage. A small amount of material will also be extracted from the crest along the open beaches towards Beachlands, where it has built up over the summer.

This operation to manage the flood and erosion risk along this frontage is being fully funded by the Defra grant, Flood Defence Grant in Aid to the budget of £150,000.00.  This additional funding has been provided by the Environment Agency following the exceptionally severe winter which was experienced recently. We would still anticipate to carry out a further beach recycling operation in the Spring of 2015 should the beach become depleted over the winter period.

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