Report from Skegness Standard 16th February 2005 By James Hardaker
"A MONSTER tide flattened the front of the boat compound on Skegness beach on Sunday evening.
Gales whipped up fierce waves as the tide reached its highest point, ripping fence posts out of the ground, smashing up the roadway next to the compound and leaving wood and metal littered across the beach.
But Skegness Boating Club, which owns the compound, has vowed not to be defeated.
Spokesman John Overton said: "We will still be running from the tractor shed.
'The club will not close down -arrangements can be made."
The Environment Agency issued a flood warning for the coastline from Gibraltar Point to Humberston on
Sunday afternoon as north-westerly winds collided with the rising tide.
The sea reached its highest point at 9.25pm, when the waves hammered the sand dunes and flooded the boat compound, the roadway and part of the grassed picnic area further back.
The flood warning was lifted at 11.09pm.
The tide destroyed a fence put up by boating club members just 10 days before to replace the original one which the sea had undermined.
"We thought the worst was over because the sea wasn't coming anywhere near it," said Mr Overton.
He said the compound was now so badly damaged it might not be viable to repair it, especially in light of predictions which put the next wave of high tides at 7.3 metres on March 11 and 12.
• The club's efforts to win funding for a new £54,000 compound next to the Princes Parade car park continue "
Some 150ft of Beach Road and old slipway have been washed onto SSSI
Concrete, tarmac, metal etc being washed southwards along SSSI
Apparantly the Council used "domestic waste" to raise the level of Beach Road, the adjacent picnic area and the boat compound. In addition to hardcore rubble and clay, there are large quantities of plastic, glass and metal.
At the time of construction the possibility of tidal erosion may not have been considered but now, faced with reality, the vast quantity of debris contained in this site will be shortly be finding its way on to the SSSI. A public health hazzard now obtains, not only from jagged metal and glass but from any micro-organisms contained within the waste.
In recent years, the old Lagoon Walk has broken up, followed by the boat slipway and now a large part of the boat compound. In the future it is more than likely that the remainder of the compound and much of Beach Road and the adjoining picnic area will follow.
This vast quantity of alien material is contaminating not only the Seacroft Marsh SSSI but will impact in an adverse way on the Gibraltar Point NNR for decades to come. East Lindsey District Council has failed in its duty of care to protect this internationally important site.
