No plans for emergency work following three cliff falls in 24 hours in Sidmouth

There are no plans for any emergency action to be taken following three cliff falls in the space of 24 hours in Sidmouth.

Two cliff falls took place on Wednesday – one at East Beach and one at Jacobs Ladder – with a third having taken place at East Beach on Tuesday afternoon – and all saw the cliffs crumble into the water and huge clouds of dust created.

The trio of landslides are just some of the evergrowing number of cliff falls that have hit Sidmouth this year, and while the funding for the long-awaited Beach Management Plan has finally been found, completed work is at least two years away.

The plans would not stop cliff falls but would reduce the erosion from the toe of the cliffs, which would reduce the erosion rates.

Calls have been made for emergency work to be carried out by the district council to shore up the cliffs at Pennington Point, including by the current chairman of the council, but an East Devon District Council spokesman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that no emergency action to protect the cliffs is set to be made.

They added that both locations of cliff falls this week were outside of the land they own and manage and are not included in the area set to be protected by the BMP.

The spokesman said: "In both locations the risk of cliff falls is well signed on any access to the beach, so members of the public should adhere to warnings to stay well clear of the cliffs. East Beach has also had its access restricted as much as practicable to try to discourage any public access.

"Both locations of the three cliff falls are outside land owned and managed by East Devon District Council. They also fall outside the area covered by the Sidmouth and East Beach Management Plan , so there is no plan to help protect the cliffs either before or as part of the BMP."

They added: "Cliff falls are a natural and unpredictable occurrence along the East Devon coast, this is because the rock from which the cliffs are formed is soft and therefore prone to rock falls and landslides, which can happen at any time, although periods of heavy rainfall such as the wettest February on record and now a long dry period, can cause an increase rate of falls."

While the BMP does include both Jacobs Ladder and East Beach, the location of where the cliff falls have occurred are outside of the area for which the £8.7m scheme aims to protect, with the spokesman adding: "It cannot, however, stop cliff falls.

"In fact, many of the recent cliff falls are beyond the area the BMP will protect, occurring further East on National Trust land."

The beach management scheme consists of adding a new rock groyne on East Beach, importing new shingle onto Sidmouth Beach and East Beach, and raising the existing splash wall along the rear of the promenade by around 1m. A trial took place earlier this year to test the effectiveness of a glass sea wall, although it was cut short after vandals smashed it with a sledgehammer.

East Devon's proposed scheme has more than £137m of economic benefits and will protect 120 residential properties from coastal flooding, as well as a further five properties from erosion, by slowing the erosion rate of the East Beach cliff.

But while the funding for the scheme may been secured, planning permission would still be needed, and it is anticipated that it could be as far as four years away before the scheme is completed.

Cllr Stuart Hughes, the current chairman of the council, and a member of the Beach Management Plan Steering Group, has in the past for the urgent action to be taken to protect the cliffs, saying that something needed to be done to stem the amount of erosion that's taking place now as time and tide wait for no-one.

Local resident Stephen Pemberton added that until the scheme is completed, Sidmouth remains open to flooding in the meantime and that urgent and emergency action is required for a rock revetment at Pennington Point and all along East Beach to prevent the flooding of Sidmouth.

He added: "In our own locality, the river defence works of 1972 have been conspicuously successful. Three major floods in the 1960s, none since. The Esplanade is not a walkway for tourists, it is primarily a sea defence, and again it has been remarkably successful in preventing the flooding of Sidmouth for very nearly 200 years. Prior to its installation flooding from the sea was a regular event.

"The two offshore breakwaters have also been very successful in creating a high even design level beach, and, as a bonus, a sandy foreshore. The problem is that a third island, recommended by the consultants, was rejected at the time. Pennington Point would probably be 30 metres further out to sea if they had gone ahead with a third island."

It comes as the old Alma Bridge that connected the seafront to East Beach has been removed. A new £750,000 replacement bridge is being developed 40 metres inland from the original bridge and is on schedule to be finished by the summer, and last week, the historic old bridge was removed.

The Environment Agency has investigated the potential impact on tidal flood risk once the original Alma Bridge has been removed, and it has confirmed that it will not increase flood risk.