New "sandscaping" project to protect coastline of Norfolk and Suffolk
Sand will be pumped onto the shore between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft to create a new beach
Last updated 25th Sep 2022
A revolutionary new process to protect coastlines from erosion could be rolled out in Norfolk for the second time.
Officers at Coastal Partnership East (CPE) are considering the use of ‘sandscaping’ to protect a stretch of coast between Gorleston and the Suffolk village of Corton.
The cutting-edge practice has only been used once in the UK before – up the coast at Bacton.
It involves taking sand from sustainable offshore locations and pumping it onshore to places that need it, to create a larger beach.
Tens of millions of pounds have already been spent on efforts to protect the fragile stretch of coast – which includes the holiday village at Hopton.
But coastal experts think that the use of sandscaping, pioneered in the Netherlands, could provide a longer-term solution.
Karen Thomas, head officer at CPE told a meeting of Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s environment committee on Wednesday that her team had received “the green light” for a pre-feasibility study to be carried out on that stretch of coast.
“It sandscaping cannot be done everywhere. It can only be done at locations that are accessible for the vessels to get in and places that are safe to do so,” she said.
Ms Thomas said her team had been engaging with the Crown Estates, who own the foreshore, and that CPE would be covering the cost of that study, because they see it as a “potential adaptation” for that stretch of coast.
The study is set to begin in late November or early December of this year.
The use of sandscaping at Bacton was rolled out in 2019, primarily to protect the gas terminal there.
The terminal processes up to one-third of the UK gas demand at any one time and it serves as a vital connection point for the import and export of gas between Britain and the continent.
In that year alone, the project placed approximately 1.8 million cubic metres of sand on the beaches between the gas terminal, Bacton village and nearby Walcott.
That project had in turn been inspired by the Zandmotor or ‘sand engine’ at Ter Heijde in the Netherlands – a first-of-its-kind scheme developed at a cost of €70m in 2011.