Tunnel exposure could lead to catastrophic cliff fall

Welcome to yet another 'Hughes on Nub News' and first of all a very topical subject… no not the B word.... but the C word, and in line with Devon recently declaring a Climate Emergency I have already thrown my weight behind the work undertaken by officers and Zapinamo in developing the bid for trials of on-street charge points in Exeter as a phase one and which would then hopefully lead to the phase two for Sidmouth, Exmouth and Dawlish.

These charge points would see them incorporating batteries to utilise renewable energy and reduce the demand on the network.

There is clearly an opportunity for Devon and other local authorities to lead the way for on-Street charge points for Electric Vehicles via the Innovate UK bid process and I do hope that Zapinamo are successful.

Changing over ALL of the Sid Valleys Street lighting to LED's is also right up there on my agenda as this would certainly contribute towards the Climate Emergency goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 at the latest although it would be good to hit this target earlier.

So far almost 500 lights have been converted to LED across the Sid Valley and with a second "Challenge Fund" in the pipeline I believe we will see all lanterns in residential roads replaced with LED's over the next 3years.

The recent exposure of the remaining section of tunnel on east beach that was built to bring stone to Sidmouth for a harbour development and then had to be abandoned as it hadn't been made big enough to allow the steam engine to pass through makes me shudder especially when visitors and even some locals ignore signs not to go near the cliffs due to frequent rock falls.

This latest exposure spells the beginning of the end for the last section of tunnel and once breached will see a catastrophic cliff fall/ land slip which we haven't seen the likes of before.

I've been studying this area ever since consulting geologist and member of the Geographical Survey Dr Geoffrey Kellaway contacted me and came to Sidmouth back in the early 90's and warned of the consequences of building hard rock off shore breakwaters in a soft rock area.

He was absolutely correct as we have seen enhanced erosion, he also quite rightly claimed that rock revetment at the toe of the cliff would be environmentally acceptable and would dissipate wave action.

This would still allow cliff falls until the angle of repose at the top was reached however Natual England (formerly English Nature) and Jurassic Coast WHS objected and we are where we are today and still awaiting an affordable Beach Management Plan scheme, so please do take notice of the safety warnings.

Written in a personal capacity by Stuart Hughes, County Councillor for Sidmouth.