BCP Council’s Cabinet is set to sign off one point four million pounds to manage cliff safety along fourteen miles of coastline in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
The funding follows landslides at West Cliff in October last year and at East Cliff in November last year and January this year, which highlighted ongoing instability in the cliffs.
The cliffs stretch for fifteen and a half miles in total, with fourteen point one miles managed by the council and one point four miles in private ownership.
Most of the coast is already defended from sea erosion by seawalls, groynes and beach nourishment, but these measures do not prevent landslides caused by groundwater within the cliffs.
A Cliff Management Working Group now brings together officers from services including Seafront and Environment to review inspection reports and agree which actions should be prioritised.
In two years, the council has spent over seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds on monitoring, expert advice, maintenance and emergency works at sites such as Portman Ravine.
The one point four million pound allocation from reserves will fund cliff management until the end of the twenty twenty six to twenty twenty seven financial year.
According to the report, investing in inspections, drainage and targeted remediation will reduce the risk of future cliff falls, protect people and infrastructure and limit beach hut closures.
A longer term cliff management strategy is due by March twenty twenty six, treating cliffs as assets needing repeated inspections, with Cabinet to consider the payment on twenty six November.
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