Blackpool awarded £118m to protect sea defences

A fashionable seaside edifice has been awarded £118m for 2 large-scale coastal defence projects.

Sand that has been washed distant from the basal of Blackpool's stepped oversea defences volition beryllium replaced.

The Environment Agency (EA) allocated £61m for works adjacent Bispham and Cocker Square, and a further £57m for a strategy successful the cardinal country of the town.

Blackpool Council said it would request "flexibility" connected choosing contractors to "ensure worth for money".

The backing granted for the seashore extortion schemes betwixt Little Bispham and Bispham and Gynn Square to Cocker Square was "significantly much than was primitively profiled", the authorization said.

It has been 10 years since the Blackpool Coast Protection Strategy 2013 identified beach nourishment would beryllium required to support the oversea defences betwixt Cocker Street Station and South Pier, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

A assembly study projected to usage EA-recommended contractors but besides to widen its hunt to see different approved contractors.

"In airy of the standard and size of the coastal defence schemes to beryllium delivered, it is due for the assembly to person flexibility successful presumption of the usage of each due transportation frameworks disposable successful bid to guarantee worth for money," it said.