Work to replace the failing Stokes Bay seawall in Gosport has begun

Contractors, Suttle Projects are carrying out the £1.2m Stokes Bay replacement scheme with work predicted on the seawall and Alverbank East Car Park to come in on time and on budget. The 135m replacement seawall at Stokes Bay will help protect local infrastructure, like Stokes Bay Road, houses and businesses from flooding and erosion risk. For the work to go ahead the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) provided a full Marine Licence.

Andy Pearce, from Coastal Partners, at the Gosport Borough Council (GBC) Community & Environment Board meeting (June 19) said “It’s a really good news story, we have a marine licence, closed the funding gap and we are onsite. Work has started on the seawall clearing the ground of concrete obstructions. The car park will be made good.”

The time between the initial drawings and construction increased the risk of the wall failing as it turned inwards. This has been reconciled by a slight adjustment of a new concrete pile seawards to minimise the encroachment on the Special Protected Area and heritage features, said the council report.

The Alverbank East Car Park has been closed for two to three years, said Cllr Chegwyn. As part of this scheme, the drainage of water from the seawaves that gathers on its surface will be fixed and the car park returned to use by the end of September.

Progress Update – Stokes Bay Feasibility Study

The Stokes Bay Study has been investigating the coastal management options available to GBC and Hampshire County Council (HCC) for the wider sea defences in Stokes Bay, to be funded through a combination of Local Levy funding and GBC and HCC contributions.

Mr Pearce said the first two phases have been completed with work on the seawall starting and the third phase is ‘aspirational’ and involves the costing of long term work on the southern coastline projects estimating £10m. He said: Gosport council would not be able to fund that type of investment and that there is no funding from the government to do phase three.

Cllr Chegwyn, said there was no council money and it had to be honest with the public on what they could do in terms of flood relief work and seawall repairs.

The Alverstoke Flood

Council officers confirmed that the flooding of Alverstoke in April was being investigated by HCC and it was not confidential and findings had not been confirmed yet. Mr Pearce said a letter was sent to the Secretary of State asking for help.

Councillor Philip Raffaeli (Con, Anglesey) raised the issue of a Section 19 Review which looks at the response on the night and what went wrong. He said it would be helpful to inform Gosport residents that an investigation was occurring to give them confidence that the flooding has not been forgotten because residents fear that nothing is happening.

Cllr Chegwyn praised the councils response and staff as ‘brilliant’ on the night of the flooding and said it followed up with free skips for the clear up.

Coastal Partners was formed in 2012 to deliver a coastal management service across the coastlines of the local authorities in Havant, Portsmouth, Gosport, Chichester, and Fareham.