Majority of Eastbourne car park’s spaces to be out of use in January

The Environment Agency, in partnership with Eastbourne Borough Council, is planning a £100 million scheme which will protect 10,000 homes, business and vital infrastructure from coastal flooding for the next 100 years.

To help understand the existing flood defences the group is carrying out an investigation from January 4, and a majority of spaces in Fisherman’s Green car park will be unavailable as a result.

A spokesperson from the Environment Agency and the council said the investigation will run for around three weeks.

The spokesperson said, “These exploratory investigations take the form of either boring or drilling into the ground to extract samples from the underlying soils.

“We will use these samples to help inform us about what is in the ground.

“Work on each location will take typically between two-three days.

“These investigations are an initial look at below the surface, it is likely that as the project progresses we may need to obtain more data to inform the project’s development.”

The spokesperson said the site compound for the investigation will be based in the Fisherman’s Green car park.

They added, “This is because the original planned compound location is being used as a covid testing site.

“This compound location serves as the base for a range of ground investigation locations across the coastal frontage and there is only one borehole planned for this location. Therefore, we do not expect the compound location to generate significant additional noise.

“During the month of January the majority of spaces in the car park will be out of use.

“The allocated car parking spaces for those using the Southern Head fish mongers are still available and all nearby car parks will remain open.

“We appreciate this work may be noisy and can be disruptive, so we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“This work will be completed in compliance with covid-19 regulations.”