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The engineering team responsible for the management of the East Riding coastline forms part of the Council’s Civil Engineering Services dept. The team consists of two key members, Mike Ball the Principal Engineer in overall management control and Neil Mclachlan the Engineer that looks after the daily running of the section.

The coastal team is responsible for maintaining all the Council’s coastal structures along the East Riding of Yorkshire coastline, together with monitoring of the beach levels and cliff line erosion rates.

The monitoring and maintenance of the defended frontages requires that general inspections be carried out on a monthly basis, this ensures that structures continue to be safe to use. Additional inspections would be carried out as and when required, particularly following rough seas or in response to a call from a member of the public. We value calls from the public as these reports ensure structural damage gets inspected and acted upon as soon as possible, greatly improving our overall response time.

The Council has no responsibility for maintaining private defences. However these structures are also inspected and defects reported to the relevant owner.

On top of these inspections more detailed structural surveys are carried out twice a year, once before and once after our annual defence maintenance contract. Maintaining the Authority’s coastal defence structures usually costs approximately £150,000 a year, however this cost can be substantially higher if additional storm damage has occurred.

In addition to the monitoring of the man made structures the Authority also monitors the condition of its beaches and cliff line. This involves surveying the whole coastline every six months using GPS surveying equipment. The data collected enables us to monitor erosion rates both of the cliff and foreshore, it also makes it possible for us to assess the performance of the defended frontages and ensure that new works are designed correctly.

Contact Details:
Neil McLachlan, Engineer (Infrastructure Projects)
East Riding of Yorkshire Council
County Hall
Beverley
HU17 9BA
Tel: 01482 395655
FAX: 01482 395057
Email: neil.mclachlan@eastriding.gov.uk

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