Coast defences may be improved

The study into the defences at Scarborough and Staithes will result in two project appraisal reports being put forward to the Environment Agency in a bid to secure further funding to carry out the urgent works.

Scarborough Borough Council has already secured a £107,000 grant from the organisation, which will fund the reports into the Scarborough North Bay sea wall and Staithes harbour wall improvements.

Councillors will decide whether to push ahead with the scheme at a Cabinet meeting next week.

If the project goes ahead, the council plans to submit the reports to the Environment Agency next March. In June, the Yorkshire Post revealed Scarborough Council had dropped long-running legal action to claw back millions from a company which it illegally consulted for a coastal defence scheme after balking at the spiralling cost of the bid.

The authority reached an agreement with former consultants High-Point Rendel to withdraw legal proceedings in relation to a coastal defence project in Scarborough between 2002 and 2005 and was tens of millions of pounds over budget.