Page 47 - Yachter Spring 2023

As with all significant infrastructure projects costs rise.At the beginning of 2020, the indicative delivery costs were £5m
for the Core Scheme and £2m for the Additional Scheme. By June 2022, these figures had increased to £13m and £5m respectively, numbers that will inevitably increase still further as detailed design work proceeds.
The Langstone Scheme is not eligible
for full funding from the main source of Government Funding called Flood Defence Grant in Aid (FDGiA) funding.This has meant that a range of other funding sources have been explored towards the scheme costs. Coastal Partners have managed to facilitate a commendable £6m from a variety of sources to date, but that leaves
a current funding gap approaching £7m which will need to be found for the works.
Given the economic climate, the significant increase in the cost of construction materials and the likelihood of increased competition for funding from other small coastal communities, it seems unlikely that the funding gap will do anything other than grow.
For other areas with no strategic justification for coastal defence, reinforcement of coastal defences is the responsibility of private landowners. In
the vicinity of Langstone Village, there has already been a breach of privately-owned sea defences at South Moor – ‘C’ in the picture – requiring the rerouting of the National Coast Path to a point further inland.
In March 2022, another privately-owned length of sea wall suffered a collapse to the east of the area – at ‘D’ in the picture – alongside Langstone Mill Pond.
These breaches are both on much-loved and oft-walked heritage coastal paths. Without a strategic imperative to fund remediation, the future for such coastal communities around the Solent and
elsewhere around the country is uncertain. In the western Solent,a team has been set up under the aegis of the Environment
Agency to establish a strategy for strengthening, raising or moving the sea defences from Hurst Spit to Lymington to cope with the projected rises in sea level in the coming years.Their work is in its early stages and SPS is monitoring its progress anticipating a report on their ideas probably in mid-2023.
Understanding the risks
The sea level has been rising in the Solent region for many thousands of years. Climate change will undoubtedly increase the rate of sea-level rise, raising the risks associated with coastal communities. However, there are actually few areas that will become at risk
that are not already. So the conclusion, for an individual,is that it is best to understand the current risks, and plan to minimise the impact, should they occur, rather than worry about the numerical change in risk which is very hard to quantify.
In contrast, a local authority or government agency, (and public utility whether private or publicly owned) needs not only to understand the risk but to have policies and practices in place that reduce the risk for future generations.
Extract from Solent Protection Society – Newsletter 2022/2023 – provided by Bob Stevenson. Taking care of your Solent for future generations. Join us on https://solentprotection.org/
FEATURE 47