Coast Protection at Reculver - Strategic Option Review

 Strategic Option Review

The Do Nothing option (option 1) results in the loss of the ancient monument, inundation of farmland as far south as the Sarre Wall and the breaching of major road and rail links with all the problems that would ensue. The loss of the transport links could be capped by the constructionof new links round the south of the Sarre Wall. This option has the highest cost combined with the worst environmental impact.

The Retreat options (2, 3, 4A and 4B) all involve the construction of new lines of defence inland of the existing structures. To minimise costs the alternative retreat lines were chosen to coincide with existing embankment structures. In all cases the existing embankments needed to be raised to provide the required standard of service and to be armoured with rock to prevent long-term erosion. The best of the Retreat options was 4B - Retreat to the Railway Line / Rushbourne Wall as this left both transport routes untouched and also protected the ancient monuments but 250 ha of farmland would still be lost. Completely abandoning the existing defences is superficially attractive but requires additional raising of the new defences so that they provide the correct standard of service and would also rule out the creation of a salt-marsh habitat in the flooded area because ofthe high level of wave activity. It is possible to create saltmarsh here but only by doing work to retain the existing sea wall and ensure that there were no more than two discrete breaches. Option 4B thus has the highest environmental score so far (though still less than the neutral score of 27) but at a high financial cost.

Of the Hold-the Line options employing sea walls, Emergency Repairs gave the best value for money at £5 million but at the price of a detrimental impact on the Environment, principally becausefailures would occur during winter storms so the emergency repairs would also have to be carried out in winter, the time most calculated to disturb visiting birds. Beach Management however has an overall positive environmental benefit (the only option which does) and at a marginal saving in costs over the Emergency Repairs option. Holding the Line by the use of Beach Management techniques was therefore chosen as the best strategy to adopt.

Land at risk in Do-Nothing option

Retreat-the-line options and land lost