DCF eNews December 2022

DCF eNews December 2022
Posted : December 2, 2022

Welcome to Dorset Coast Forum’s December eNews update. If you have information to share, or wish to unsubscribe, please email dorset.coast@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.

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As we are approaching the festive break, the DCF team would like to wish all our members a very Happy Christmas and we look forward to more coastal collaborations next year! The team will finish for Christmas on Friday 23 December and will be back on Tuesday 3 January.

DCF Business plan 2022-2025 – Now Available!

The aim of the Dorset Coast Forum Business Plan is to showcase the strengths and capabilities of the Team, which enable us to work in partnership with local authority departments, partner organisations, businesses and communities. It is also to set out our aims and priorities going forward, to detail the finances of the DCF Team and to set out risks and challenges.

Swanage Seafront Masterplan

It’s been a very busy month for the seafront masterplan in Swanage, with public consultation, outdoor school days, market stalls and photography exhibitions! The survey has now closed but had over 1,000 responses plus we have over 110 ideas pinned to our virtual ideas board which is fantastic and huge thanks to everyone who took part. During December 2022 we will be analysing the survey responses and during Jan-April 2023 we will be drafting the Seafront Masterplan. A further round of consultation on the draft masterplan will take place in April 2023.

Swanage Past, Present and Future – 150 people attend engagement event
We were delighted that our photography exhibition on 17^th November to promote the Swanage Seafront Masterplan survey was well attended by over 150 people. The event explored the history and changes of the seafront, from 1880-2022. Virtual Swanage kindly allowed us to print photos from their website. Additionally, we had original postcards dating back to the Victorian age, kindly lent to us by Steve Wallis, Dorset Council’s Senior Archaeologist. It was useful to meet lots of local businesses, councillors, seafront users, and interested members of the public.

Logo competition
We’ve had over 200 entries to our competition to design a logo for the seafront masterplan. The winner will be announced very soon!

View Project HERE

Swanage Town Coastal Protection Scheme

You always know winter’s arrived in Swanage when the huge, concrete ‘lego’ blocks arrive! A reminder that when easterly storms hit the town, flooding can occur. The Environment Agency have once again installed the Legato wave barriers for the winter period.

DCF Project Officers Sara and James were joined by colleagues from Wessex Water’s Education team and Swanage Pier volunteer Nick to celebrate Outdoor Classroom Day at Swanage Pier on 3 November 2022 with Y6 pupils from St George’s School, Langton Matravers. Although it rained, we all had a great time talking coastal flood defence, hearing the pupil’s excellent ideas for the Swanage Seafront Masterplan and learning all about sewage and how the water treatment works near the pier functions! We also got the chance to wear our new DCF Hi-Viz jackets purchased with a very kind donation from Swanage Rotary.

Joining James at the photography exhibition on 17th November provided an opportunity for the public to see how the Swanage Town Coastal Protection Scheme will align with the Swanage Seafront Masterplan as it takes shape. JBA Consulting have been contracted to model wave patterns and depth, starting the process of developing potential solutions for flood defence improvements.

View Project HERE

Studland Bay Marine Partnership – Eco-Mooring Project

The consultation report commissioned by the Studland Bay Marine Partnership is now available on our dedicated website Studland Bay Marine Partnership | Dorset Coast Have Your Say

Representing the partnership, DCF Project Officer Sara was recently asked to present at the RYA Advanced Mooring Systems (AMS) workshop focussing on partnership working and public engagement.

View Project HERE

Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan

The Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan Consultation Feedback Report is now available to download on the dedicated website Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan | Dorset Coast Have Your Say Thank you to everyone who contributed! The Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan Team will now be working on the next phase of the process incorporating all of the information gathered through the consultation process.

If you are a community leader, school, college, organisation or group in Weymouth keen to find out more about the Neighbourhood Plan and how it effects the places where you live, please contact Sara or Nikki at dorset.coast@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

View Project HERE

Weymouth BRIC

Dan is finalising the Householder Guide to Flooding for residents and businesses in the Melcombe Regis and Harbour area. We have received extensive feedback from the community and relevant stakeholders, and will be distributing the guide in the next month.
There are two Flood Warden training sessions planned for January led by the Environment Agency. We are working closely with the Flood Warden group and relevant authorities to improve awareness and resilience to flooding in the area. For more information or to volunteer as a Flood Warden, please get in touch.
In conjunction with the other BRIC project partners across England and France, we are creating a ‘Model Guide’ for the project to provide communities and organisations with a blueprint for how best to increase community resilience to flooding and increase engagement in flood risk management.
We visited Weymouth College during their Environment Week to talk with students about flooding and climate change. Discussions ranged from the COP27 event to the role of businesses in local flood resilience.

Weymouth College Environment Week event

We have now finished Round 1 of engagement for the Weymouth Flood Defence Scheme. Round 2, which starts in early 2023, will further explore options for the future of Weymouth’s flood defence.

View Project HERE

Sustainable Swanage

The new Sustainable Swanage dedicated website is now live! Please visit https://sustainableswanage.uk/
The ‘Trees of Swanage’ tree trail by our Greening Swanage group is now available! Highlighting 10 trees or groups of trees in the Town. Collect the leaflet from Swanage Information Centre or visit our website New Swanage Tree Trail Launched – Sustainable Swanage.

For Outdoor classroom day on 3^rd November – we had a great morning on our Autumn tree walks with 2 local schools learning about tree species and how to identify them.
We have been holding regular informal open evenings to all on the 2^nd Tuesday evening of each month, at Herston Village Hall. Our next one is on 13^th December 7-9pm and it will be our Christmas party! There will be food and soft drinks, sustainable Christmas crafts and a pop-up Community pantry stall – drop in format as this is not a meeting!
Our market stall is back on 2^nd December where we will be talking Food Waste and Trees. For further details please contact Sarah at sarah.spurling@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

View Project HERE

Weymouth Flood Defence Project

Update from the Flood & Coastal Erosion Risk Management team FCERM):

Thank you to everyone who recently took the time to provide feedback either in person or online by sharing views and experiences of flooding in Weymouth. We are currently working through all the responses provided (more than 100). The knowledge and views of local people will help us to identify suitable options for Weymouth that deliver the most benefits to the community.

Topographic surveys have been completed of the Esplanade, Harbour and Radipole Lake, including the creation of a 3D cloud survey to help with the future visualisation of possible options. The surveying will be used in the baseline coastal modelling that will progress in December and early 2023. Modelling will help us understand the risk that Weymouth is at in the future.

The project team have been developing long lists of potential options for Weymouth Esplanade and the Harbour and have been liaising with other Dorset Council projects and project partners in the area such as Weymouth Town Council’s Seafront masterplan team, Wessex Water and the Environment Agency.

Finally, please watch out for information around our second round of public engagement, which we hope to launch in Spring 2023.

View Project HERE

Lyme Regis Cobb Stabilisation

The Lyme Regis Cobb Stabilisation scheme is in the initial planning stage, with DCF delivering stakeholder and community engagement. Along with a dedicated webpage, a survey will be created to capture vital information from commercial users of the Cobb and those dependent upon the Cobb, which will help inform the project delivery plan. Public consultations will take place from March 2023, including public and commercial user’s meetings.