Nearly £3m allocated to design new sea defences

Nearly £3m is to be spent designing new sea defences for a two-and-a-half mile (4km) stretch of coast in West Sussex.

The money, £2.9m, has been given to Chichester District Council by the Environment Agency, after the council's engineers examined the current defences around Selsey.

They concluded the existing works are nearing the end of their life.

The council said it would now be able to seek long-term funding to construct the new defences.

The engineer's report found more than 700 properties would be at risk of flooding, in the event of a once in two centuries storm.

Jonathan Brown, deputy leader cabinet member for environmental strategy, said: "We are seeing more extreme weather events, which could impact on the town's sea defences and increase the risk of flooding, which is why it is so important that we are all able to plan and prepare.

"The new funding means that we can now press ahead and come up with options and designs that will allow us to bid for further funding to move forward with the work.

"We expect there will be a significant funding gap, so we'll be working hard in order to close this, including contacting the Environment Agency to highlight funding issues."

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