Lyme Regis coast protection works

 The scheme is vital in order to save the town from destructive landslides and coastal erosion. The work programme is largely complete and has been specially drawn up to minimise disruption wherever practical and to keep the town running as normally as possible. Click on the links on the right to find out more about the scheme.

The work has seen Lyme Regis benefit from newly stocked sand and shingle beaches plus a new promenade which stretches right around the sea front. And the town's public gardens were stripped for stabilisation work but are now largely reinstated.

Lyme Regis is located on an actively eroding stretch of the West Dorset coast and faces considerable challenges from coastal erosion and landslipping. Problems have been particularly serious during the last 100 years, with many properties destroyed or damaged, erosion of the foreshore and major breaches of the sea walls.

The Lyme Regis Coast Protection Scheme was initiated by West Dorset District Council in the early 1990s. It aims to provide long-term coast protection for the town and to reduce damage and disruption caused by landslipping, through a long-term programme of engineering works. 

Phase 1 of the scheme, which includes a new sea wall and promenade next to the mouth of the River Lim, was completed in 1995. Urgent stabilisation work was carried out in several locations during winter 2003/2004. Detailed designs have been drawn up for a £17 million Phase 2 scheme to protect the foreshore along the main frontage from the sea and to stabilise the land behind. Construction works on Phase 2, for the town frontage and gardens, commenced in April 2005 and should be completed by April 2007.

West Dorset District Council has also been carrying out preliminary studies and preparing conceptual designs for economic and environmentally acceptable coast protection works for other areas of the town. Emergency stabilisation work has taken place recently in critical areas to provide short-term protection while the main schemes are being developed. 

Funding from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)  has now been received for the start of the preliminary design study relating to Phase IV - the Church Cliff and East Cliff area on the eastern edge of Lyme Regis. This scheme will be of a similar magnitude to Phase II and the preliminary design will aim to develop a solution to protect the coast, property and the natural environment which makes this area so attractive to locals and visitors alike and to enable a bid to be made for coast protection funding.

Please click on the links and documents on the right for more information or the link on the left for latest news.

• Name: Lyme Regis Environment Improvements Team
  Email: engineers@westdorset-dc.gov.uk
  Tel: 01305 252360
  Fax: 01305 252349
  Full details for Lyme Regis Environment Improvements Team