Engineers to visit sand cliff
COASTAL engineers were today considering whether to bring in a bulldozer to flatten a sand shelf on Felixstowe beach which it is feared could be a danger to children.
COASTAL engineers were today considering whether to bring in a bulldozer to flatten a sand shelf on Felixstowe beach which it is feared could be a danger to children.
The shelf - which stretches along the shore opposite the Town Hall in Undercliff Road West - has been created by the sea sweeping away newly-placed sand and shingle and is a metre high in places.
Coastguards and the resort's volunteer rescue service have voiced fears that the mini cliff could collapse if children play on or below the ridge or tunnel into it - smothering a youngster with sand.
Project manager for the Environment Agency, Andrew Rouse said contractors working on the resort's £10 million sea defence scheme would visit the site today to see what action could be taken.
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He said: “We will make an assessment and decide what action should be taken - whether we need to go back to the area and do some more work and then arrange for the kit to get down there.
“Sand is a natural material and the sea is shaping it into the beach it wants and in the next couple of weeks the higher spring tides could wash out that area and the cliffing will disappear.”
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Further along the beach the action of the waves was already doing this and creating a smooth new beach with the new T-shaped groynes then helping to retain the material.
Contractors Team Van Oord have been creating the new beach at Felixstowe by spreading 500,000 tonnes of sand and shingle along the shore as part of the sea defence scheme designed to protect 1,600 homes and businesses in the low-lying south of the resort.
Are you worried by the state of the beach? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk
