Sea defences to protect work on creating giant gas store

Work starts on Monday on a scheme to create a buffer of large sandbags on the beach at Ringbrough, south of Aldbrough, close to where nine underground caverns are being constructed.

The bags will be cut open after two years to again let Nature take its course.

The £290m gas storage site is a joint initiative between Scottish and Southern Energy and Statoil (UK).

The caverns are formed by pumping pressurised seawater into an underground layer of salt. A spokeswoman for SSE said the work was to prevent a pipe used for pumping seawater being exposed.

Sand and beach debris, including remains of buildings which have ended up on the beach, will be packed inside the bags.

Private coastal defences are not allowed because it is claimed they hinder the transportation of sediment into the Humber where it forms mudflats, protecting the city of Hull and other settlements from flooding.

However permission has been given to the temporary works, for a site seen as vital to the national interest.

Aldbrough is currently providing around 115 million cubic metres of capacity from four caverns.

The first phase of the gas storage development is expected to be completed by 2012. The development followed the longest public inquiry in the East Riding’s history and led to protests from shellfishermen about the pumping of millions of tonnes of heavily saline water into the sea.