Yaverland Coastal Defence Scheme Information Page

Contact

The Isle of Wight Coastal Defence Schemes Project Team

03708 506506

IOW_FDschemes@environment-agency.gov.uk

Overview

Welcome to the Yaverland Coastal Defence Scheme Information Page.

Update 2nd December:

The Yaverland sea defence survey is now closed.

What happens next?

We have had a great response to our survey asking you to comment on the proposed shortlist for the refurbishment of Yaverland sea defences.

We will publish a summary of responses on Citizen Space within 12 weeks of this consultation closing. We will not publish any personal data. We will not respond individually to responses.

In line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we may be required to publish your response to this consultation, but will not include any personal information. If you have requested your response to be kept confidential, we may still be required to provide a summary of it. For more information see our Personal Information Charter.

We are running this consultation in accordance with the guidance set out in the government's consultation principles.

If you have any questions or complaints about the way this consultation has been carried out, please contact consultation.enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

To make sure you are fully informed please email us requesting to join our mailing list.

Update 23 November 2023 Update 23 November 2023

There is one week left to complete our coastal defence survey for Yaverland seafront.

Your feedback will help us to determine a preferred option for the sea defences.

Please complete our survey by 1 December 2023. The survey can be found online here. Paper copies are aslo available from Sandown Library, Shanklin Library and the Help Desk at Isle of Wight Council, County Hall, High Street, Newport, PO30 1UD.

Although the public exhibitions are over you can still view all of the material on our consultation page here.

Previous updates:

Update 10 November 2023 Update 10 November 2023

The last day of our public exhibition is today, 10 November. The Coastal Defence team will be at The Clifton Hotel, 1 Queens Road, Shanklin PO37 6AN between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM taday. You will have the opportunity to find out about the sea defences and the options for refurbishment before completing our survey.

Your feedback will help us to determine a preferred option for the sea defences.

If you can not make the exhibition you can find all of the material on our consultation page here.

Update 6 November 2023 Update 6 November 2023

The public exhibitions for our Shanklin and Yaverland Coastal Defence scheme are going ahead as planned this week.

Update 26 October 2023 Update 26 October 2023

October public exhibition drop in events cancelled due to flooding impacts

Due to the impact of heavy rainfall and flooding across the Isle of Wight we have made the difficult decision to cancel the public exhibition drop in events at Wildheart Animal Sanctuary and the Broadway Centre for the Yaverland and Shanklin Coastal Defence Schemes which were due to take place this week.

Our staff are currently prioritising our incident response work. The health, safety and wellbeing of our staff and members of the public is a priority. We expect to go ahead with the rest of our schedule of events as planned in November. We are checking venue availability and will update this page with a revised date for the Yaverland and Sandown exhibitions.

The consultation is still live. You can view our exhibition material online in the meantime. Head over to our consultation page here.

Your browser does not support inline PDF viewing. Please download the PDF.

A copy of the poster can be downloaded here.

Our latest newsletter can be viewed here:

Your browser does not support inline PDF viewing. Please download the PDF.

Update 06 January 2023 Update 06 January 2023

Newsletter

Our latest newsletter is available here.

A plain text version is available here.

A word version is available here.

Ground investigation work

Ground investigation work starts on Monday 16 January 2023. Specialist equipment will be used to drill boreholes through the sea wall and retrieve concrete cores which are sent to the laboratory for analysis. Machine excavated trenches located at intervals along the sea wall and next to the groynes will also be required. The results from the investigations will give the project team information about the composition of the ground and existing foundations where the coastal defence refurbishment is being proposed. Further details can be found here.

Yaverland Coastal Defence Scheme questionnaire

We sought views on how the Yaverland coastal frontage and nearby leisure/tourism offering is used, what is most valued about it, and the perceptions amongst stakeholders of flood and coastal erosion risks both now and in the future. This will help to inform how we engage with stakeholders going forward, and capture any concerns, ideas and opportunities in the shortlist of options that we present to the public in Summer 2023.

We received 44 responses in total. 39 responses were made via the Yaverland Coastal Defence Scheme Information Page; 5 were made via paper copies held at Sandown Library.

Individuals who wish to follow up their responses, or points made within this document, in more detail are welcome to contact us at IOW_FDschemes@environment-agency.gov.uk.

A copy of the response summary can be found here.

Our latest newsletter can be viewed here:

Your browser does not support inline PDF viewing. Please download the PDF.

A copy of our latest newsletter can be downloaded here.

If you require this in another format please don't hesitate to contact us at IOW_FDschemes@environment-agency.gov.uk

The Environment Agency have created this page to provide easy access to information on the Yaverland project, one of four priority coastal defence projects on the Isle of Wight. The Environment Agency will be updating this site as the project progresses, so please keep checking for what’s new.

If you would like to be added to our mailing list to receive updates on this project or any other of the Isle of Wight coastal defence projects, please email us and let us know which projects you are interested in. Our email address is: IOW_FDschemes@environment-agency.gov.uk

Please get in touch if you need any of the documents on this site sent to you in a different format. We would be happy to help.

For information about other coastal defence projects on the Isle of Wight see here.

Background

The Environment Agency in partnership with the Isle of Wight Council, with expert support from JBA Consulting and VolkerStevin, is exploring a sustainable future for the coastal frontage between Yaverland and Sandown on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The Environment Agency are focusing on the area between Yaverland car park and the junction of Crescent Road and Culver Parade, shown in red on the map below.

The Sandown Bay coastal frontage is a popular tourist and amenity area with its long sandy beach, esplanade and attractions. This project aims to address the flood risk and coastal erosion challenges facing this stretch of coastline.

This work aims to enhance the seafront for future generations and assist regeneration, whilst reducing flood risk to the community and preserving the area’s tourism and heritage value. Additionally, the project will explore longer term flood and erosion risk management options and make recommendations for a sustainable coastline for future generations.

Challenges facing the Yaverland coastline More Information

Coastlines are dynamic environments and change is a common occurrence. However, the Environment Agency need to manage the risks that this brings in terms of sea flooding and coastal erosion. The existing sea wall reduces the risk of sea flooding to the low lying land in Sandown and Yaverland. As sea levels rise due to climate change and the condition of the sea wall deteriorates with time, the risk of flood and coastal erosion to properties, road and rail infrastructure and low-lying land in the area and along the Yaverland coastline will increase. This will also impact upon the environmental habitats in the area and the species they support.

The Environment Agency want to work alongside relevant stakeholders, especially the local community, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing the future of this coastline.

What if we do nothing? More Information

The existing sea wall embankment is occasionally overtopped by waves during stormy conditions, causing localised flooding. This can be seen in the photos below, taken in 2015.

The condition of the sea wall and groynes between Yaverland car park and Sandown (Culver Parade) varies. Some sections of the sea wall are in a very good condition, and are expected to offer sufficient protection for many years to come. Other sections are in need of repair. The groynes may be near the end of their useful life and in need of significant repair or replacement. The photos below show some of the deteriorating structures.

If the Environment Agency take no action, these poorer sections are at risk of failure, which would lead to a breach in the sea wall and flooding of the low lying land including properties and infrastructure in Yaverland and Sandown bordering the Eastern Yar valley. The map below shows in red the section of sea wall that the Environment Agency is looking to refurbish. The area in blue is land that would have a 0.5% or greater annual probability of sea flooding if the wall was not in place.

The predicted 0.5% annual probability tidal flood event with no defences in place

Funding More Information

On behalf of the UK government, the Environment Agency prioritise and allocate funding to flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes using a partnership funding approach. Securing national funding is dependent on the scale of benefits and outcomes delivered by a scheme and, if required, additional funding contributions may be required from other sources such as local levy (raised by the Regional Flood and Coastal Committees), private or public organisations, the local community or developers. Anyone who benefits from a scheme may be asked to contribute to its funding. The Isle of Wight Council is also making a funding contribution to the current schemes.

More information on how partnership funding works can be found here

Current estimates suggest that a scheme to refurbish the sea defence structures between Yaverland and Sandown would be eligible for just under £5 million of government Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Grant in Aid funding. Early, high level cost estimates indicate that the cost of a scheme would be in excess of this, and that several million pounds would need to be found, or savings made, to enable it to go ahead. Actual partnership funding requirements are very much dependent upon further investigation to confirm the required costs but we are already considering other potential sources of funding to supplement available government funding.

Work to date More Information

No decisions have yet been made about how best to address the flood and erosion risks in this area. Since autumn 2020 we have been gathering information and putting a case together for public investment in flood and coastal risk management infrastructure improvements between Yaverland and Sandown. The Environment Agency have done this by submitting a high level business case (a ‘Strategic Outline Case’) to its internal assurance group. Approval was received in summer 2021, which justifies funding for the next stage of business case development. This is the ‘Outline Business Case’ stage, which began in winter 2021. The 'Outline Business Case' will develop more detailed options for improving the defences, and the Environment Agency will undertake flood modelling and other technical assessments and investigations to help us make informed decisions about what the Environment Agency could do.

Engagement and Next Steps More Information

The project is still in its early stages and the Environment Agency have identified a wide range of options to reduce the existing risk of flooding and coastal erosion. The Environment Agency will however, need your thoughts and ideas to supplement its technical assessments, to develop these options further. This will take time, but the Environment Agency will increase its engagement activities in the coming months as it introduces the project, shares its initial findings, and gathers views on what is valued about the coastline as well as any concerns about its future. Throughout this project there will be numerous opportunities for you to feed into its development and the Environment Agency would encourage you to do so.

Frequently asked questions can be viewed here.

Back to the Overview page

Get in touch

Thank you for visiting our project page.

Please contact us:

By email: IOW_FDschemes@environment-agency.gov.uk

By post: Environment Agency, Romsey Office, Canal Walk, Romsey, SO51 8DU

By phone: 03708 506 506

If:

you are not able to access any of the information on this page.
you have any comments or feedback on our information page.
you have any questions or concerns about the project.

If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please email us.

For more information on how we will use and share your data, please see our Privacy Notice and our Personal Information Charter

Events

Blast from the past 2023: Dinosaur Isle Culver Parade Sandown, Isle of Wight PO36 8QA

From 18 Nov 2023 at 10:00 to 19 Nov 2023 at 16:00

More information

We are delighted that Dinosaur Isle Museum have invited us to Blast from the past 2023. The event is for local people to find out about the Island’s heritage. Visitors are being asked to make a token charge of £1/ visitor. This is another opportunity to view our exhibition before the consultation window closes.

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Audiences

Anyone from any background

Interests

Flood management
Coastal management

Closes 29 Sep 2028

Contact