Campaign to Save Milford Beach

Local resident, Mark Jardine has started a campaign to Save Milford Beach.

His proposal and reasoning is below, and if you would like to get involved his contact details are at the end of the article.

The business case for saving Milford beach

Anyone who’s visited Milford on Sea over the past couple of years will have noticed the toppled beach huts and resulting debris along the shoreline. Erosion of the cliffs is nothing new and will continue, but the reduction of shingle on the beach itself has been alarming.

Pictures by Jan Anderson

Any student of GCSE or O Level Geography will know about longshore drift. Along any coastline with a prevailing wind direction, a beach is constantly moving. Put up groynes and you disrupt this flow. To the west of Milford beach are plenty of groynes, keeping the shingle and sand in place, but there are currently none on the shingle area of Milford beach, just an aging wooden one at the beginning of where the boulders have been placed.

Pictures by Mark Jardine

Various sea defences have been added either side of Milford beach over the years, including the boulders at Barton, which extends the beach out and acts in itself like a massive groyne, and  the concrete wall, reinforced with steel, between Hordle Cliff and the White House. This has had boulders added along much of its length which has ‘held the line’ as well as dissipating wave energy.

There is though a length of around a hundred metres on the western end which hasn’t been protected in this manner. It is now showing signs of collapse, as well as the shingle being washed away from behind the wall. Without protection, this area will be changed irrevocably. An area of boulders here would have a double purpose, as they would also act as a groyne, keeping more shingle on the beach, which in itself acts as a boundary between the sea and the cliff.

The Shoreline Management Policy for this frontage is set as ‘managed realignment’, blaming “natural coastal processes”, but when active interventions have already been put in place upstream (i.e. to the West) then this can no longer be attributed as the cause. The protection of one area (Barton on Sea) has been to the detriment of another (Milford on Sea). This does not need to be an either / or scenario.

I realise that budgets are extremely tight, so I’m going to put forward the business case as to why intervention is essential.

The ground rent for more beach huts will be lost. This is an annual income for the council where less beach huts equals less income.

Milford beach now only has one set of steps left adjacent to a car park. If this is lost, visitors will simply go elsewhere. The revenue lost to the council through car parking alone will be significant.

Tourism will suffer. All those staying at hotels, B&B’s, and Shorefield Park are attracted in part by Milford beach, which is packed during the summer months. The smaller the beach, the less people can enjoy it. This will lead to reduced income for the local shops and restaurants, which leads to closures, and the subsequent loss of income to the council of the various taxes levied on the businesses.

I know this isn’t cheap - my educated guess would be around £250,000 to carry out the work - but the alternative is far more costly. There is easy access to this section for the necessary plant and machinery via the sloped path to the beach from the cliff top car park. I believe this protective work would be of both short and long term benefit to the council’s revenue.

I understand central government funds can provide between 21% and 29% of the cost, and the annual budget for sea defence work is around £400,000. If there is a shortfall in NFDC funding then it is time for local businesses and benefactors to step in to help. After all, it’s in all our interests and we’ll deeply regret doing nothing as tourists coming to see the toppled beach huts, crumbling cliffs and car park falling into the sea will be a short term fad.

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If you would like to get involved with the campaign to Save Milford Beach, please contact Mark on savemilfordbeach@gmail.com.