Swanage Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme (CTAP)

Sheps Hollow Steps Update - We’ve now finished the new boardwalk and steps leading onto the Sheps Hollow area of beach at the north end of Swanage Bay. The previous steps had been heavily damaged by winter storms. Following a temporary closure over the summer to allow the land to settle, we recently appointed contractors to build a new wooden boardwalk and metal steps to restore access. With the CTAP potential funding available at the earliest in 2025, it was felt that this necessary 8-10 year 'temporary' solution was required as soon as possible and funding was secured by Dorset Council from outside the CTAP project fund to reinstate the access to and from the beach for the community and visitors.

Anti-slip surfacing has now been added to the step treads

The steps may be a little steep for some, but this is to allow them to be secured onto a large flat rock at the base. Any further out and we’d need a concrete fixing, which would likely be undermined by tidal movements. Following feedback from the community, we have also installed new Glass Reinforced Plastic treadplates with anti-slip surfacing on all the steps. This will help keep people safe, and allow dogs to climb.

Please be aware that the bottom post is held in position by a pin and R clip - this allows the post to move slightly within the socket and is a part of the contractors design.

We’d like to thank the local community for their patience and understanding during the closure, and hope these new steps will be used by beach visitors (and their dogs!) for many years to come.

New steps under construction November 2024
Image Credit Swanage News

The communities of Swanage and Charmouth have been selected as the next recipients for funding as part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency’s Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme.

The Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme (CTAP) helps communities to plan for the long term, including through interventions such as improving and replacing damaged community infrastructure like beach access or coastal transport links, repurposing land in coastal erosion zones for different uses such as temporary car parks, and restoring and creating habitats to include green buffer zones.

Why now and why do we need to do something different?

England has some of the fastest eroding coastline in Europe. Coastal erosion is a natural, ongoing process that has been happening for thousands of years. But with sea levels continuing to rise into the next century, the rate of coastal erosion in some places will accelerate.

For some coastal locations it will unfortunately no longer be technically or economically feasible to provide protection from flooding and coastal change.

As the risks of erosion increase and accelerate with climate change, we need to explore now how local authorities can work with and support people living, working and using coastal areas that cannot sustainably be defended in the long term.

The CTAP aims to:

• Accelerate strategic planning (and associated action planning) to set out how the coastal local authorities, partners and communities will address the long-term transition of communities, businesses and assets away from the coastline at risk.
• Support the trialling of early on the ground innovative actions in support of medium and long term plans, that enable those coastal areas at significant risk to address the challenges posed by a changing climate.

The programme will run to March 2027, exploring and testing innovative opportunities. A full evaluation of the programme will help to inform future national policy direction and will add to the other coastal resilience activity managed by the Environment Agency, which includes a national coastal erosion risk map providing clearer data about local risks to help local planning.

The Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme supports the Environment Agency’s FCERM Strategy, which provides a longer-term vision of how we will better protect and prepare homes and businesses from flooding and coastal change and create climate resilient places.