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Major £7m Coastal Monitoring Scheme Set to Be Led by North Yorkshire Council

Tuesday, 24 March 2026 18:30

By Anttoni James Numminen, Local Democracy Reporter

North Yorkshire Council is preparing an £8 million funding bid to the Environment Agency to continue leading the North East Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme until 2033.

A bid is set to be submitted for close to £8 million of funding to continue leading a major regional coastal monitoring project in North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire Council plans to apply for the cash from the Environment Agency as part of a bid to continue leading the North East Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme into its next phase until 2033.

If successful, it will secure 100 per cent project funding of £7,147,000, plus £714,000 of contingency funding, which would fund research on the risks from coastal flooding and erosion, improve understanding of coastal process behaviour, and provide a holistic overview of coastal defences, responding to national and local priorities.

The funds will be held and administered by the Environment Agency for the delivery of the fourth phase of the North East coastal monitoring programme, covering six years of data collection and analysis between 2027 and 2033.

It provides data, analysis and reports for the risk management authority partners, stretching along 300km of coastline from the Scottish Borders in the north to Flamborough Head in the south.

This includes Northumberland County Council, North Tyneside Council, South Tyneside Council, Durham County Council, Sunderland City Council, Hartlepool Borough Council and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. Assistance is also provided to the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, according to a report prepared for NYC’s executive committee.

As part of the North East Coastal Observatory and on behalf of the North East Coastal Group, North Yorkshire Council leads the North East Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme’s present phase from 2021-27.

The programme’s costs, including NYC officer time within the Northeast Coastal Observatory team, would be fully funded along with all survey and analysis activities, and no match funding would be required from NYC.

If successful, the grant will be claimed and drawn down from the Environment Agency on an annual basis, in line with current practise.

Bosses at NYC have been asked to approve the funding application at a meeting of the authority’s executive committee on Tuesday, March 31.

A report for 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 adds that “this monitoring programme has been successful in attracting external funding since 2008”.

The Environment Agency’s Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management National Strategy sets out a vision for a nation that is “ready for, and resilient to, flooding and coastal change today, tomorrow and to the year 2100”.

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.”

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