Repairs to Southsea sea defences cost £1.7m in 7 years

Work to keep the Southsea sea defences in fighting shape has come at a price of £1,716,698 since 2013, The News can reveal.

A total of £1.2m of this has covered repairs due to 'major' storm damage and has been met by funding from the Environment Agency (EA).

However, a further £437,586 has been spent by Portsmouth City Council in that time on repair works that aren't considered routine.

It is expected fewer repair jobs along the defences will be required once the city's new coastal defence scheme, for which work recently started, is complete.

Guy Mason, the city council's coastal defence manager, said: 'All the major capital repair works are undertaken with the knowledge that permanent flood defences will replace them within the six year construction programme at Southsea.

'So we try to design them in a proportionate manner where we know they're not a belt and braces repair and the materials we use in their construction (such as the rocks placed at the Pyramids) can be re-used in the permanent scheme.'

The Southsea Coastal Scheme, that is estimated to cost upward of £100m, will stretch from Long Curtain Moat in Old Portsmouth to Eastney. It is planned to be completed by 2026.

Mr Mason added: 'The flood defences at Southsea have to demonstrate nationally that they represent value to the taxpayer.

'It is estimated that a major coastal flood at Portsmouth would cause economic damages in excess of £1bn. The real cost however, would be in the damage and disruption caused to all those affected by flooding.

'Our new defences are being built to last for 100 years and are also designed to take into account sea level rise through climate change.'

SEE ALSO: First major step in sea defences project begins with 'rainbowing’ display

Major repair jobs paid for by the EA in recent years include £566,231 spent on the area in front of the Pyramids in 2014. And two large repairs were undertaken in front of the Southsea war memorial in 2018 and 2019, costing £211,404 and £501,477 respectively.

Work paid for by the council, which comes from an annual maintenance sum held with the planning policy and cultural development portfolio, mainly includes repairs to sea walls like re-pointing or repositioning coping stones and filling the odd gap.

Routine maintenance work like shingle shifts and deployment of temporary defences and refurbishment of flood gates is not classed as repair work.New sea defences are also currently being built in the north of the island as part of the North Portsea Island Scheme.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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