Coastal Erosion Could Mean Car Park Move for Mappleton

Thursday, 4 April 2024 06:00

By Matthew Pells

A Car Park and Toilet block in Mappleton could be moved as a result of coastal erosion.

The coastline at Mappleton is one of the fastest eroding sections in the UK, losing around three meters a year.

East Riding Council's Coastal Change manager - Richard Jackson - says government cash could be used to move and improve the existing car park and toilets.

East Yorkshire's Coastal communities are to play a key role in deciding how to spend the government funding to cope with coastal erosion.

East Riding Council has been given £15m to spend on the Changing Coasts East Riding project which will replace community facilities that are at risk of being lost to erosion.

Richard Jackson says local people are best placed to know what the money needs spending on.

The Changing Coasts project is designed to engage with residents and businesses to support them to adapt to, or relocate away from, risk. The work has already included engaging with a number of caravan parks to encourage them to proactively relocate or remove caravans and site infrastructure and to work with them to develop longer-term health and safety risk assessments and adaptation plans for their sites. In addition, Council officers worked with the owner of a commercial property at Skipsea, which was at imminent risk from erosion, to secure its removal.

A series of drop- in sessions about the project were held in coastal communities in autumn 2023 which were attended by over 100 residents, who told the team about how erosion was impacting their area and how the project could address these issues. Key themes which arose across the drop-in sessions were a lack of rural beach access, the need for additional housing in coastal settlements and concerns around the long-term risks to key transport routes.

In order to monitor changes to the coastline, including beach levels, the Council runs a comprehensive coastal monitoring programme, which includes twice-yearly aerial image and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) surveys of the whole East Riding coastline, coupled with more regular visual surveys at high-risk locations. The Council has also commissioned regular drone surveys of high-risk areas to enhance the existing monitoring programme following a successful trial.

The results of the autumn 2022 and spring 2023 monitoring survey showed that average erosion losses recorded over this period were generally slightly above average rates, however large regional differences were recorded,with some locations seeing negligible erosion and other areas experiencing significant losses.

Locations that saw higher than usual erosion include Fraisthorpe, Ulrome, south of Hornsea and areas to the south of Withernsea which continued to experience rapid coastal erosion, consistent with that seen over the past 10 years.