Anchorsholme Coast Protection Scheme 2017

On Monday 30 October 2017, a ribbon was cut to officially open the £27.1 million Anchorsholme Coast Protection Scheme. The scheme is designed to reduce flood risk to 4,800 properties in Blackpool.

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It was officially opened by Blackpool Council Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, Councillor Fred Jackson, with the Chair of the Environment Agency, Emma Howard Boyd.

The new defence at Anchorsholme safeguards Blackpool’s iconic seafront tramway. It also helps to protect vital infrastructure and a major pumping station.

A kilometre of concrete seawall has been replaced. It’s maintained access to the beach, and created a new promenade with the amazing views over the Irish Sea.

Take a look at it in this video clip from May 2020 –

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The new defences will help protect Blackpool’s tourism and recreational income for the next 100 years.

The promenade also links the seafront to the nearby Anchorsholme Park. It’s recently been developed after works carried out by United Utilities to improve bathing waters.

The new park is amazing! We went along to the opening event –

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More about the Anchorsholme Coast Protection Scheme 2017

The Fylde Peninsula Coastal Programme was a partnership between Wyre, Blackpool and Fylde councils and the Environment Agency. The aim is to reduce flood risk to people and develop historic and natural environments.

Anchorsholme, together with the Rossall sea defence project, forms one of the largest coastal defence projects in the country.

Princes Way Reopens as sea defence works near completion

Published November 2016

The new promenade, along with Princes Way, reopened to the public on Monday 14 November 2016.

The two and a half year construction programme saw a brand new 1km seawall built to replace the old crumbling structure. The highway was elevated and in doing so created better access to the nearby Anchorsholme Park. Princes Way used to flood regularly during bad weather and high tides. The road is far less likely to flood now, while providing better access between the Promenade and the park.

The new £27m sea defence will provide better flood protection to thousands of nearby properties. The area has been prone to flooding, as recently as 2013. Around 4,800 properties will benefit.

The previous flood defences, originally constructed in the 1930s, were secured and built over. Approximately 2,500 precast concrete revetment slabs, wave breaker units and wave walls were used. Together with around 3,000 tonnes of steel they provide the primary flood protection from Little Bispham to Anchorsholme. In addition, precast wall and step units provide the rear defences. They help to achieve the required level of flood protection for the surrounding community.

More than 160 workers were employed with coastal construction experts joined by dozens of local apprentices from across the Fylde coast.

With works complete, memorial plaques from the old seawall are back at the new promenade. On-street parking is now pay and display.

What South Promenade Cleveleys and Princes Way were like…

Back in June 2015, we took our dash-cam and filmed the drive along the seafront highway. Join us at the end of Victoria Road West at Cleveleys. Drive along South Promenade, Cleveleys to the boundary with Blackpool at Kingsway, onto Princes Way.

On your left you can see the new sea defence works. You can also see Anchorsholme Park too, fenced off at the time for separate works by United Utilities, building a wastewater/sewage storage tank.

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Before and after

Take a look at these ‘before’ photos, which show just how bad a state the wall was in!

Funding the Anchorsholme Coast Protection Scheme

Published October 2013

Blackpool and Wyre Councils worked in partnership to protect 12,000 properties from the risk of coastal flooding. Defra and the Environment Agency formally approved £86 million of funding in 2013 and gave the green light for work to start. The Fylde Peninsula Coastal Programme was one of the largest flood defence programmes in the UK at the time. £64m for Rossall and £22m for Anchorsholme with an additional £17m project for Fairhaven Lake and Church Scar.

Councillor Derek Antrobus is Chair of the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. He said: “We’re committed to reducing the risk of flooding to as many homes and businesses in the North West as possible. The Rossall and Anchorsholme flood defence scheme is one of the biggest currently planned in the UK. It’s fantastic for our region. A really positive step towards making communities living on our coastline as resilient to flooding as possible.”

The Anchorsholme area is at the northern boundary of Blackpool. There, it meets Cleveleys and the new, award winning sea defences. It’s also where major flooding also occurred in 1927 and 1977. The sea defences at Anchorsholme serve as a barrier for 4,500 residential properties sitting in a low basin of land.

Flooding and road closures

Flooding to the promenade, highway and tramway occurred regularly during storms. Waves over-top the existing sea defences, resulting in temporary road closures.

A United Utilities pumping station forms part of the sea wall at Anchorsholme. This means that Anchorsholme and parts of Rossall are also at risk of sewerage flooding. As well as flooding properties, loss of the pumping station would have a devastating effect on regional bathing water quality.

Closing the highway is disruptive to traffic. But people are understandably drawn to the spectacle big waves which in itself creates a serious risk to life.

It’s less exposed here than at Rossall. So the optimised solution is to replace the existing 1930s concrete seawall with new. At the same time, raise the promenade to stop the highway from flooding several times a year.

Other UK Sea Defences

The funding coming to the Fylde Coast was part of a total pot of £2.3bn around the UK. The funding is for 93 new flood defences which will provide protection for 64,000 homes around the UK.

Some of the other largest projects include:

• A partnership-funded £50.5m scheme in Leeds
• Improved protection for 14,000 homes from £14.5m flood defences at Grimsby Docks
• A £28.6m sea defence in Great Yarmouth
• £16m for the River Thames tidal defences
• A £10m scheme on the east bank of the River Arun, protecting Littlehampton in West Sussex

Replacing sea defences according to the risk of flooding

The ingenuity and flair of designers and engineers has given us a superb promenade and public space at Blackpool. It’s a space to be proud of, while protecting properties and businesses from flooding.

The highly successful Cleveleys scheme finishes at the Blackpool boundary at Kingsway. Then the promenade at Anchorsholme continues as Princes Way. Blackpool engineers determined that the sea wall on Princes Way was in a progressive mode of failure. The deterioration is clear for all to see. Many homes in the area suffered in the floods of 1977.