Rocks to be piled on beach to protect Millionaire’s Row

Fifteen thousand tonnes of granite rocks are set to be heaped on the beach to stop a shoreline road dubbed Millionaire’s Row falling into the sea.

The rock armour revetment to the west of Western Esplanade, home to celebrities including Fatboy Slim and David Walliams, is part of a £35.3 million scheme to protect Brighton and Hove’s coastline.

The 15-year project will protect not just the houses in the seafront row, but also scores of nearby businesses including Shoreham Power Station and Shoreham Sewage Pumping Station.

If nothing was done, experts say they would all be lost to erosion by 2040.

Western Esplanade Management Company itself is contributing £81,061, and Brighton and Hove City Council £6.3 million.

The rest is coming from Adur District Council, Shoreham Port Authority and the government, which has approved more than £12 million in funding.

Brighton and Hove City Council this month submitted an application to its planning department for the rocks.

The application, written by JBA Consulting, says: “The shingle beach along the frontage provides the main form of coastal defence and is controlled by a series of timber, rock, masonry and concrete groynes.

“Historic storm events have previously led to flooding of commercial premises and properties along Brighton seafront and on adjacent roads.

“Emergency repair works have been undertaken to repair breaches in seawalls and some structures, but many remain in a collapsed or partially collapsed condition.

“The proposed scheme aims to achieve a consistent standard of protection along the coastal frontage in six locations to reduce the risk of coastal erosion and coastal flooding through the refurbishment of existing defence assets where required, and the construction of new assets.

“Consequently, it will provide material benefits by reducing erosion and flood risk to people, property and the environment.

“This will include protection for eight residential and 73 commercial properties (including Shoreham Sewage Pumping Station and Shoreham Power Station), and reduction in flood risk for a further six residential and eight commercial properties.”

Another application is being submitted to Adur District Council for a second rock revetment further west along the beach.

Its estimated they will use 15,000 tonnes of granite rock, sourced from Lydd in Kent. If approved, they will be built later this year.

The scheme also includes building a new wave wall at Hove Deep Sea Anglers Club and replacing the existing timber groynes in front of King’s Esplanade with nine new ones.

Shingle from Kemp Town beach will be regularly recycled to the Shoreham end of the beach.

On the Adur side, a new concrete flood wall will be built on the shoreline at Shoreham, and existing timber and concrete/timber walls will be replaced, and a concrete wall repaired.

Residents of Western Esplanade and members of the Hove Deep Sea Anglers Club were informally consulted last summer.

More shingle-friendly plants will be planted to the west of Basin Road South and west of Carat’s Cafe, and new biodiversity living wall built on the existing sea defence wall on Basin Road South. 

On 14 April, Brighton and Hove News was approached by a representative of the Western Esplanade MAnagement Company with this statement from Brighton and Hove City Council, which we are happy to include:

“The Brighton Marina to River Adur Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management scheme covers 10km of seafront.

“The stretch of seafront managed by the Western Esplanades Management Company is only a tiny fraction of the full 10km.

“We are the lead agency for the scheme, and we work in close collaboration with our various coastal partners.

“The development costs for the scheme were estimated by our Engineering Consultants and costs distributed between the partners based upon benefit-cost ratios and partnership funding calculations in line with Environment Agency guidance and the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

“The contributions were subsequently agreed by all partners and approved by the Environment Agency in 2020.

“Western Esplanade Management Company acted on the advice of the outline business case to raise their own groynes at their own expense. This work was completed independently to the financing and management of our ongoing scheme.”