Erosion fears as hole in seawall is plugged

Arun District Council this week began the latest in a series of temporary repairs to the beach in front of Sea Way.

The work is needed to fill a 12ft deep hole in the beach which developed in the final days of last year.

The damage to the frontage has been described as the worst anyone living in the area can remember.

The hollowed-out area of beach also extended to around 10ft wide.

Nearest homeowner Malcolm Hebbron, whose back garden of his Sea Way house was about 20 yards from the site, said: 'This is dreadful. Arun were here twice last year spending a lot of money doing work. The last time was about six months ago.

'But that has not lasted six months beyond the first storms that we have had.

'I'm bound to be worried. There's only a small stretch of beach left before the sea breaks through to my property.'

He said the threat from the sea would only get worse if predictions of stormier weather and rising sea levels were true.

The erosion seems to have been caused by the force of the waves damaging and undermining timber breastwork put in by Arun last year.

The water looks to have got in underneath the timber by damaging the sea-facing wood wall supporting the breastwork and scooping out a section of beach behind it.

The beach in front of the breastwork is totally devoid of shingle, which means waves are breaking on the frontage with their full force.

Fears exist among Middleton-on-Sea Association members that any further storm damage might breach the sea defences.

The latest breach of the sea defence is the most recent episode in a campaign by the association for long-term and effective coast protection works for the frontage in the Sea Lane area.

Nearly three years ago, in March 2005, a petition signed by 3,200 people calling for better sea defences was presented to parliament by Bognor Regis and Littlehampton MP Nick Gibb.

The shoreline management plan of Arun states the coastline along Middleton, between Hannah's Groyne and Southdean Close, will be held in its present position.

This is backed in the council's coastal defence strategy which sets out how protection can be carried out.

Arun's councillor for community safety and emergency planning, Cllr Roger Elkins, said the repairs to the breastwork should be completed by tomorrow.

'The repaired breastwork will continue to be monitored and repaired as necessary,' he assured residents.

The damage had been caused by a small weak spot in the generally-favourable ground conditions in the area where the council carried out substantial works last year.

This vulnerable area enabled the sea to cause what Cllr Elkins described as '˜a very short length of wash out' during the holiday period.

He stated: 'The defences along part of the Middleton frontage are ageing and are not up to the standard we would like.

'Arun has, for a number of years, had a scheme in place in its forward programme to address the situation.'

But he added changes in the government's funding priority towards flooding from rivers meant no sign of the money needed to pay for the major capital works. This was likely to continue for several years.