£8m funding bid for coastal monitoring project

13 hours ago

Anttoni James NumminenLocal Democracy Reporting Service

The programme examines coastlines in the north east, starting at Flamborough Head

BBC A coastal cove with a sandy beach nestled between tall white cliffs. The scene appears to be taken from an elevated grassy viewpoint looking down into the bay. The beach sits in a curved, sheltered bay formed by steep chalk cliffs. A few people or objects appear to be floating or paddling in the water near the cliffs. — The programme examines coastlines in the north east, starting at Flamborough Head

A bid for nearly £8m worth of funding is to be submitted with the hope that North Yorkshire can continue leading a major regional coastal monitoring project.

North Yorkshire Council is expected to make the application to the Environment Agency, with the aim of leading the North East Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme until 2033.

The programme provides data, analysis and reports for risk management authority partners, stretching along 186 miles (300km) of coastline from the Scottish Borders to Flamborough Head.

If North Yorkshire's bid is successful, it would fund research on the risks of coastal flooding and erosion and improve understanding of coastal process behaviour.

North Yorkshire Council is leading the programme in its current phase until 2027 and councillors have been asked to approve the funding application at a meeting of the authority's executive committee on 31 March.

The programme's costs, including council officer time, would be fully funded along with all survey and analysis activities, and no match funding would be required from the council.

'High priority'

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a report to be scrutinised at the meeting states that if the bid is unsuccessful, the council would need to consider internal funding for local monitoring activities along the North Yorkshire coast.

However, it states that "this monitoring programme has been successful in attracting external funding since 2008".

The report adds: "One of the long-term ambitions is a nation ready to respond and adapt to flooding and coastal change.

"Long-term coastal monitoring and analysis undertaken by the national network of regional coastal monitoring programmes bolsters this, and coastal monitoring is identified as a high priority activity by the Environment Agency."

If successful, the bid would secure project funding of £7,147,000, plus £714,000 of contingency funding.

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