Sea could swallow ancient resort streets without £30m repair work

Coastal chiefs revealed yesterday they were planning to spend over £30m on a major refurbishment scheme centred on the town’s historic piers and sea defences at Sandsend as part of a pioneering new coastal strategy.

If Scarborough Council is able to secure funding from the Environment Agency, it hopes to push ahead with the repairs as soon as possible after it emerged the existing structures were crumbling.

The ambitious plans will see gaping holes underneath the town’s piers plugged up and rock armour installed around part of the East Pier extension, as part of repair work, which is expected to cost around £20m.

Access gates are also planned for the entrance to the piers, which will be closed during heavy storms in a bid to protect people from being swept out to sea by giant waves. This would replace original proposals to install heavy rock armouring around both Grade II listed structures.

Dr Nick Cooper, from Royal Haskoning, which will oversee the scheme, said the piers, which were built over 100 years ago for navigational purposes, were vital in protecting the town from being engulfed by the North Sea.

He said: “If these structures were to fail and start to break up we would see more wave energy from the sea coming into the harbour and there would be more risk of flooding, erosion and landslips. Part of the town could be swallowed up by the sea.”

Plans are also being put forward to replace concrete slopes which line the road to Sandsend, as well as stabilise cliffs in a project costing up to £10m.

Dr Cooper added: “If the scheme doesn’t go ahead, the existing defences will fail in the next few years and there will no longer be a route of access between Whitby and Sandsend.”

The new coastal strategy covers an area of just over three miles – from Sandsend to the cliff at Whitby Abbey – and also includes just over a mile of the River Esk estuary. A public consultation has been launched and Scarborough Council is urging residents to view the plans at the Spa Pavilion on Tuesday.