Shoreline Management Plans

• Groups are encouraged to develop Shoreline Management Plans (SMP). An SMP is a non-statutory document providing guidance and assistance with coastal defence planning. It identifies options that consider the needs of the natural, human and built environment.
• There are two SMPs that are relevant to this area:

  • East Solent Shoreline Management Plan, June 1997
  • South Downs Shoreline Management Plan, June 1997
• These plans put forward four options:

  • Do nothing
  • Hold the existing defence line
  • Advance the existing defence line
  • Retreat the existing defence line
• They are defined in the SMP of 1997 as:

  1. Advance the line - manage and defend a line forward (seawards of the existing defence line).
  2. Do nothing - where a specific line need not be defended, so that the coast line can be allowed to evolve without human intervention. This option does allow some management ( such as realignment of footpaths) and monitoring.
  3. Hold the line - maintain the line of the existing defence.
  4. Retreat the line - manage and defend a line landward of the present line, to accommodate coastal erosion and in the longer term to promote a more stable coastal formation.
• A more sustainable policy may be to accept that if the social and economic well being of the whole area are to be protected, it may be necessary to make adjustments towards a more natural shoreline in certain areas with low value development.
• The policy of do nothing and let the sea have it's way may be the most sustainable option long term, but not for any people who live on the coastal stretch in question - hence the huge controversy at Seaford.