Beach management plan needs input from community

A project to tackle cliff erosion and protect Sidmouth’s shores needs residents to act as its ‘eyes and ears’ - and share their memories.

That is the request from East Devon District Council (EDDC) after a meeting with its beach management plan (BMP) steering group on Tuesday concluded that it needs more local evidence to plan for the future.

Its chairman, EDDC deputy leader Andrew Moulding, said: “We are at a stage in this project when we need the local people of Sidmouth to be our eyes and our ears. We have already received excellent anecdotal evidence from the community and the steering group but we need additional relevant information which will help support the data we have already collected.

“Local information is vital as it will help us to create more detailed timelines for critical issues, such as the rate of erosion, and will ultimately help us to agree the short, medium and long-term management of the beaches.

“The steering group will be meeting again in the early autumn to consider these options.”

He is appealing for residents to send in photographs, letters, newspaper articles and old documents, as well as personal accounts of features such as The Esplanade, Alma Bridge and the railway tunnel, and records of garden erosion.

These should be emailed to aladbrook@eastdevon.gov.uk or posted to Annette Ladbrook at EDDC’s Knowle HQ before Tuesday, March 31. Work on the BMP is dependent on Environment Agency funding.