CoastView - Pevensey Bay, an example for Public Private Partnership

£40 million sea defence scheme

The Argus 16 January 1997

WEATHERMAN Michael Fish has unveiled a £40 million sea defence scheme which will protect the whole of Pevensey Bay from Cooden In the east to Langney Point In his old home town of Eastbourne. With him, taking the wraps off the biggest flood defence scheme ever undertaken in Sussex, was Lewes farmer David Monnington, chairman of the regional flood defence committee.
At risk from the sea are 2,000 properties, two major roads, the mainline railway, internationally important wetlands, two nature reserves, commercial and recreational areas. Work on the nine kilometre stretch of coast will begin next year and could take eight years to complete. The Environment Agency's Sussex area manager, Peter Midgley, said: 'The sea defences are deteriorating faster than we can manage by regular maintenance. We are committed to providing the best possible defences to protect the people of Sussex.'
The work will begin at Cooden and progress westwards. The beach will be widened and extended with 1.8 illion cubic metres of shingle, 126 new timber groynes will replace existing ones, and 23 two-metre high rock T-head structures will be erected at the end of the groynes. Michael Fish, an old boy of Eastbourne College and the longest serving TV weather presenter, visited South East Water's treatment works at Pevensey Levels in the afternoon and in the evening was the after dinner speaker for an audience of Environment Agency senior managers and experts in coastal and river flood defence from all over England and Wales. Mr Monnington, who farms 1,250 acres on Pevensey Marshes, the Ouse Valley and Sussex Downs, has been involved with flood defence since 1958. He will retire as chairman of the regional flood defence committee later this year.

Delay fear for work on flood defences

The Argus, 9 May 1997

PLANS to seek private finance for the £32 million Pevensey Bay flood defence scheme could delay the work until the next century county councillors believe. The Pevensey Bay scheme is one of three put forward by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for consideration for funding under the Government's private finance initiative. The other two schemes have potential gains for developers by integrating housing, tourism or leisure facilities. But MAFF acknowledges there is no likely gain to a contractor from funding the work at Pevensey Bay.
The public protection committee is now asking the county council to make urgent representations to the Government, stressing the need for the work to be financed and done as soon as possible. A shingle bank along the coastline is the only defence against the sea for an area covering the whole of Pevensey Levels, parts of Westham, Pevensey, Halisham and Herstmonceux. Much of this area is below the level of the high spring tide.
In the worst case scenario as many as 36,500 residents could be affected, many properties damaged and a large area of low-lying agricultural land would suffer severe damage. The public protection committee believes that the social, environmental and economic damage that would result from salt water flooding in the area justifies a high priority for the flood defence scheme.'

New report says 'end war with sea' but Pevensey Bay defence scheme is still OK

Sussex Express 21 August 1998

by Hugh Rowlings
ANXIOUS Pevensey Bay residents who live on the edge of the flood-prone beach have been assured that vital shingle replacement will still be carried out despite a Pailiamentary report calling for the Government to stop spending on sea defences. The assurance was given to Pevensey county councillor Roger Thomas by the Environment Agency of which he is a member. Cllr Thomas has chaired public meetings in Pevensey Bay at which plans to rebuild sea defences have been put forward by the Agency. Currently the Environment Agency is working on a scheme to use private investment in a shingle replenishment programme which will cost between £10-20 million over the next 25 years.
Private consortiums are bidding for the contracts under a PPPP plan (public, private partnership programme). Cllr Thomas said this week: 'I have been assured that that scheme is still going forward. People in Pevensey Bay are right to be worried when they read in the national press that the Government is being urged to cut back on sea defence schemes. I am pleased to tell them that their scheme is still going ahead.' The residents fears were generated by the publication of a report this month by the Agriculture Committee entitled Flood and Coastal Defence. The committee, which consists of a select number of MPs, is advising the Government: 'It is time to call an end to the centuries-old war with the sea'. This prompted the Daily Express headline 'Let Britain sink say MPs'. This sparked panic in Pevensey Bay and Cllr Thomas' telephone was hot with calls from anxious residents seeking assurance over their scheme.
Cllr Thomas added: 'I was disappointed that no MPs from the South Coast, where we have particular problems like Pevensey Bay and Selsey, were represented on this committee. This is an important tourist area generating employment and bringing in revenue and we should have a voice. Mr Peter Midgeley, area manager for the Environment Agency, also confirmed that the Pevensey Bay scheme was still going forward.
He said the agency had to evaluate the cost of carrying out major defence work and in Pevensey Bay's case there were a lot of properties on low lying land, the Pevensey Levels (important from a habitat point of view) had to be protected and there were also road and rail connections to be preserved. If the defences were breached the floods would carry into central Eastbourne and past Herstmonceux to the edge of Hailsham. This was why it was important that the work went ahead. The Committee's report would go before the Government for discussion in due course he said. In the meantime, defences had to be maintained.
He said Pevensey Bay's case was much stronger than that of Birling Gap, for example, where there were few properties and no important road or rail links. 'There is only just so much money to go round and we have to prioritise,' said Mr Midgeley.

£29M TO HOLD BACK THE SEA

Sussex Express 30 April 1999

by James Cheshire
PEVENSEY Bay residents are just weeks away from finding out how their coastal homes are to be saved from flooding.
The winner of the contract to carry out sea defences on the shore of Pevensey Bay is set to be named on May 19, the parish annual meeting heard on Tuesday. One of the three bidders, Emergo, has already been dropped. The other two are Pentium and Tarmac; originally there were 50. On May 19 a decision is to be announced on whether the coastline is to be shored up with shingle, as is likely, or other materials such as concrete, which is unlikely The work is expected to be carried out over 25 years at a massive cost of about £29m. County councillor for Pevensey, Roger Thomas, has long campaigned for sea defences at Pevensey. 'I'm quite delighted with the way this is going,' he said. 'The Environment Agency has kept on target. The scheme is going ahead and I'm highly confident the work will start next year' Cllr Thomas led a delegation from Pevensey Bay to meet the MAFF minister Eliott Morley who pledged that a public meeting would be held at Pevensey Bay once the contract winner had been chosen. 'I'm looking forward to that meeting being held,' he said. The programme for the work is as follows:
The county council is already preparing for a mass of lorries to ferry shingle through the county to Pevensey Bay, if a shingle scheme is to go ahead. But the council is keen that as much shingle as possible can be bought in by boat. A spokesman for the Environment Agency refused to say what sort of defence will be used until Ministers have approved the plans. Flood defence minister Elliot Morley could himself be coming to Pevensey to explain the sea defence scheme. He said as much at the end of half-hour' talks in London to scotch fears that plans for sea defences at Pevensey Bay would be scrapped. Earlier this year Mr Morley visited the Pevensey Levels to declare them a site of international importance. And on Tuesday he pledged to spend £230m over the next three years on coastal and river defences. 'The Government has no intention of letting the country wash away,' he said.

RELENTLESS FIGHT TO STEM TIDE

The Argus, 22 June 2000

by Rebecca Burgess
Coastal protection of homes and wildlife for 25 years

Diggers push shingle up the beach at Pevensey to stop sea defences being washed away after fierce storms threatened the area at the end of last year £30m will shore up sea defences THE coast at Pevensey is one of the most at risk in Britain, ravaged by high tides and giant waves. Today, a £30 million scheme, run jointly in a private-public partnership, will be launched to protect the eight kilometres of sea defences in the Pevensey area for the next 25 years. Elliot Morley, Minister for Fisheries and the Countryside, will unveil a plaque on Pevensey Beach to mark the first sea defence scheme run under the Private Finance Initiative.
Advantage

The scheme is based on a partnership between the Environment Agency and Pentium Coastal Defence, which eventually hopes to reform the frontage into a more open and easily managed beach. The Environment Agency will pay Hampshire-based Pentium, which is a consortium of firms including Westminster Dredging, Dean and Dyball Construction, Mackley Construction and Mouchel, to do the work on its behalf. Environment Agency spokesman Ray Kemp said the advantage of PFI was that the work could be done more quickly He said: "We have brought in a private con- sortium because if we did it, we would only get the money in a drip fashion from the Treasury. "But Pentium can raise the capital more quickly, do the work and then we pay them back." Pentium has to conserve the existing environment. During the first year of the contract and before any work is done, it must consult all third parties and produce of an environmental statement. Peter Midgley, Sussex area manager for the Environment Agency, said: "The sea defences at Pevensey Bay protect some of the most vulnerable communities on the South Coast from the sea. "They also protect the Pevensey Levels, which is a site of international environmental importance for its wildlife and plants. "Although it is impossible to stop all flooding, this contract will give the people and environment of P evensey Bay a level of commitment to sea defence for the next 25 years which is unique in the UK."
The sea defences protect a 50-square-kilometre area which includes Pevensey Bay, Normans Bay, Langley, Westham and Pevensey itself from permanent flooding. The area includes two important nature reserves - Hooe Flats and Pevensey Levels, both wetlands of national importance - more than 2,000 homes, important recreational and commercial sites and busy road and rail links. East Sussex county councillor Roger Thomas has campaigned for years for improved sea defences in the area.
Pollution

He said: "It can't come a moment too soon. It has taken almost 30 years to get to this stage. "We will have the safest defences we can possibly have." He said the scheme had also taken environmental concerns into consideration and shingle was to be brought in by barge. A barge can carry the same amount as 500 lorries, avoiding the pollution and traffic problems associated with road haulage. Elsewhere, major coastal defences are being planned for the coast from Brighton Marina to the River Adur at Shoreham. Sea defence experts commissioned by Brighton and Hove Council, West Sussex County Council and the Environment Agency are drawing up a plan to protect the area from ero sion and flooding for the next 50 years. In the short term there will be a five-year prog ramme of work for sea fron a es most at risk, with urgent measures put in place by next summer.
Last year, engineers warned the 1933 defences were nearing the end of their usefulness and should be replaced They said "significant" damage could be caused in future if nothing was done. A report by the UK Climate Impacts Programme has also warned that parts of the Sussex coast could be deluged by flooding because of global warming. The report claimed drinking water quality could deteriorate and severe storms and coastal erosion would cause major damage to wildlife habitats, with sea levels rising by up to 50cm by 2050. Demands have also been made to the Government for cash to shore up coastal defences in West Sussex.
The coast between Worthing and Rustington has been in danger from storms and rising sea levels. Although improvements were announced by the Environment Agency for the stretch between Little-hampton and Lancing last year, residents say more has to be done to secure the area's long-term safety. Improvements during the next five years include importing tonnes of shingle to shore up defences and the construction of new groynes to hold the sea line an d protect homes and businesses from flooding.