Charmouth: £376,000 cash boost to protect coast (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Charmouth: £376,000 cash boost to protect coast

10:33am Thursday 10th December 2009

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Charmouth is set to benefit from a £376,500 cash injection to help combat erosion and rising sea levels posed by climate change.

Dorset County Council environment chiefs teamed up with their East Devon counterparts to bid for a share of millions of pounds of Government cash.

Charmouth is one of six ‘at risk’ areas along the Jurassic Coast identified as the most vulnerable to environmental change.

Hilary Cox, Dorset’s cabinet member for environment, said: “We are delighted that our bid has been successful.

“The coastal communities of Dorset and East Devon have lived with dynamic change for generations but it is clear that the risks and impacts from erosion, storms and rising sea levels are going to increase in future.”

The money, from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) Coastal Change Pathfinder Fund, will be used to support a range of activities aimed at helping communities along the Jurassic Coast to better understand and adapt to the perceived impacts of coastal change.

The cash will not be spent on physically upgrading sea defences but will bankroll strategies and contingency plans for the identified areas.

This includes using state-of-the-art media to illustrate the extent of past coastal change and potential future change, developing site-specific coastal change scenarios to encourage discussion, and developing a ‘coastal change champions’ network to stimulate debate at a local level.

A training programme for the coastal change facilitators will also be developed to enable specialist discussion, culminating in a major conference in 2011.

Coun Cox added: “The funding will help take the future discussions we are having with the communities most at risk from these changes to a new level, helping us to visualise what change may look like and develop options to adapt.”

The other five areas to benefit are Seatown, Preston Beach in Weymouth, Ringstead, Swanage, and Sidmouth in Devon.

Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council cabinet member for highways and transportation, said: “This is an excellent opportunity for the two councils and their partners to work together to look at this issue across the length of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.”

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