A digger and bulldozer have been put into action to help shift tonnes of shingle on a Devon beach back towards the sea.
The machinery will be working on Seaton beach for four days this week in a co-ordinated effort to push masses of stones back towards the sea and away from the shore.
Stones were washed up the beach and even onto the Esplanade in the East Devon town during Storm Goretti, and there have been fears that if the shingle isn’t pushed back down the beach, it could render the sea wall ineffective.
The amount of shingle pushed up the beach, almost engulfed benches along the top of the beach, and also led to the Seaton Park Run being cancelled on Saturday (17 January).
Organisers of the weekly 5km event said in a Facebook post that there was still “approximately 500 tonnes of pebbles in place along Seaton Esplanade”.
Seaton Town Council also updated residents on its Facebook page about the situation over the weekend.
“Works to move the shingle from the Esplanade and push it away from the sea wall and back to the beach will begin on Monday and are anticipated to take four days,” it said.
“This complements the work that Streetscene has already done to move some of the pebbles.
“However, with an excavator and bulldozer, the work should now go at pace.”
A spokesperson for East Devon District Council said: “We have got an excavator and bulldozer on the beach to remove pebbles from the Esplanade and then push them back from the seawall towards the sea using the bulldozer.
“This is to allow the seawall to deflect waves, rather than waves running up and over the seawall.”
The council said it had put the work out to tender, and had selected Ultim8 out of three local companies that bid for the work.
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