Flood Control: Blackpool South

(asked on 6th December 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the Government's timeframe is for (a) consulting on and (b) confirming plans to spend recent allocations of flood defence funds in Blackpool South.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 14th December 2021

The Environment Agency is currently working with Blackpool Council (the respective Coast Protection Authority) to progress three coastal schemes on its coastal frontage. Consultation has already commenced on the two Bispham schemes and a second consultation event will take place in early 2022.

  • Little Bispham to Bispham: the Environment Agency is due to receive an Outline Business Case by the end of January 2022 for assurance. The Local Authority has £800,000 allocated in 2021/22 for preliminary studies and design with a forecast of £29.3 million capital works to follow, with an estimated completion date in 2025.
  • Bispham Capital Maintenance: the Environment Agency is due to receive an Outline Business Case by the end of January 2022 for assurance. The Local Authority has £500,000 allocated in 2021/22 for preliminary studies and design, with a forecast of £5.6 million capital works to follow, with an estimated completion date of 2025.
  • Blackpool Beach Nourishment: the Environment Agency has received an application to approve funds to commence preliminary studies and investigations. The Local Authority has £342,000 allocated for preliminary studies in 2021/22 and £12 million forecast for design and capital works to follow, with an estimated completion date of 2026. Consultation will commence during 2022/23.

The sea bees re-profiling work at South Shore has an allocation of £7 million and is programmed to commence 2024/25 through to 2026/27. Initial work on this has not commenced yet. (Sea bees are hexagonal concrete revetments designed to dissipate the energy of the waves.)

The Environment Agency works closely with Local Authorities, Risk Management Authorities (RMAs) and Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) to ensure that all projects are well represented within the capital programme.

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