Talks to start for Felixstowe prom plans
TALKS are to take place to see if the final short gap in Felixstowe's prom can be filled in to create almost a five-mile coastal walk.
Richard Cornwell
TALKS are to take place to see if the final short gap in Felixstowe's prom can be filled in to create almost a five-mile coastal walk.
It has been decided that a new scheme to protect the area of the resort between the War Memorial and Jacob's Ladder will see the walkway extended around Cobbold's Point.
However, this will still leave a 200-metre gap between Jacob's Ladder and the start of the next section of prom at Brackenbury.
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Dr Rosalind Turner, of consultants Mott MacDonald, said: “People can still get along this section of the coast because there are steps up and over the groynes.
“However, this is not satisfactory for people in wheelchairs or with pushchairs. We are talking to the various agencies about what can be done about it.”
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The Felixstowe Futures group is keen to have a completed prom walk from Felixstowe Ferry to Landguard - in line with government proposals for a walk around the whole country's coast.
It has been decided to demolish the 150-year-old groynes along the frontage and build a series of straight rock groynes in their place to try and stop erosion and retain the beach.
The scheme - which is predicted to cost more than �5million - will be submitted to the Environment Agency for approval and a decision is expected next year, with work not likely to start until 2011.
Are you in favour of extending the prom? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
UNLESS Felixstowe's sea defences are strengthened, the Bartlet Hospital and resort's tennis club could vanish into the sea by 2050.
By the end of the century, the waves would be lapping at the door of Felixstowe Community Hospital in Constable Road - nearly 400 yards from the present tide line.
It's the “best guess” scenario the experts have at the moment but shows how vital it is to protect the coast with sea levels rising due to climate change.
Dr Rosalind Turner, of consultants Mott MacDonald, said: “No-one can be sure what would happen if we didn't protect the cliffs along here - our line shows a straight line of erosion back towards the town, and it probably wouldn't be quite as dramatic as that.
“Some areas would erode faster than others. Parts of the cliff would collapse and the material give extra protection for a while.”
The new sea defences will stop 525 homes, 99 businesses, the prom, Spa Pavilion and its historic gardens, a coast road and the resort's main sewer being washed away.
In the next decade it will be necessary to raise the prom by one metre or build a new metre-high wall behind it.
