Tendring: £36m sea defence scheme gets planning consent

A major £36 million sea defence scheme proposed for Clacton to Holland has reached a further significant landmark.

The project, which is due to get underway later this year, has been given planning permission and welcomed as a vital boost for regenerating the seafront as well as protecting homes.

Tendring District Council’s Planning Committee unanimously agreed the planning application for the initiative by nine votes to nil on Tuesday night.

The project will involve demolishing a number of existing timber and concrete groynes along the frontage and building 23 fishtail groynes in their place. The plans also include a beach recharge of around 900,000 cubic metres of material.

Members of the committee heard that the scheme has undergone considerable consultation and there were no comments from residents or the public.

The fish tail groynes will be around 90 metres long, each individually designed for their particular location and there will also be three straight groynes.

A number of construction compounds will need to be provided while the work takes place but the exact number is not yet known.

The main compound will be at the Tendring-council owned Hazlemere Road car park and the scheme will take place in phases with final completion expected to be in three to six years.

The project – the biggest ever for the district – was signed off by the Environment Agency last September.

The Environment Agency has provided £27m of the funds while Tendring Council and Essex County Council (ECC) are committing up to £4m each.

The council’s cabinet member for planning, Carlo Guglielmi, said a lot of work had gone into reaching this stage.

“These 5kms of coastal defences represent immense opportunities for Tendring and to get to where we are today in the current economic climate with this level of funding is fantastic,” he said.