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Policies - Shoreline Management PlansBirkdale to Southport CoastlineSMP recommended policy:- "Hold the Line" Southport is located on the southern outer fringe of the Ribble Estuary, which in common with other west coast Irish Sea estuaries experiences a continuous influx of marine-originated sediments. This is augmented by sand eroded from the shore north of Formby Point and by the offshore deposition of dredging spoils from the Mersey navigation channels. In the past, humans have taken advantage of this natural tendency to accretion and have built successive coastal embankments to protect the land reclaimed from the sea. The sixteenth century coastline ran from Crossens, past St Cuthbert's Church, along the present day Marlborough Road, Hawesside Street and Part Street. The Bold Estate map of 1736 demonstrates that the site of Lord Street was then known as the "New Marsh" a wet slack area at the seaward side of a range of sandhills. There was an estuary at Duke Street, the site of the original "Duke's Folly" Hotel, where the Nile stream discharged onto the shore. To the south lay a range of sandhills, bordering the sites of Palace Road and Rotten Row. The first promenade and sea wall was built in 1835 to protect the developing seafront leisure zone of marine villas and hotels. The early sea wall had to be re-built or strengthened several times after destructive storms. A deep-water channel known as the South Channel ran close to the Southport and Birkdale shore, connecting with the inner Ribble estuary. This channel was used by fishing craft, trading vessels and pleasure craft. Nowadays, Southport is protected from inundation by the sea by two lines of defence; the outermost to the north of Weld Road, Birkdale consists of a series of coastal revetments dating from 1960 onwards. The most recent construction is Marine Drive Floodwall and its associated promenade which protects the previously undefended central kilometre of the Southport coastline, between Esplanade and Marine Parade. The inner line of defence consists of a line of nineteenth century embankments, following Promenade, Fleetwood Road, and from the Hesketh Road to Marshside Road Sea Bank to the Crossens Sea Bank. The outer embankments, built between 1920 and 1974 were generally formed by the tipping of household refuse or builders rubble. These now form the underlying structure of the coastal Marine Drive highway. They are prone to continuous settlement, caused by the slow biological degradation of their core materials. This is likely to continue for many more years. The settlement has been partly relieved by a rolling programme of highway resurfacing. Frequent storm damage to the older sea walls is partly due to the settlement of their embankments and partly due to their age and "lightweight" construction. Most of the ground between the old and new defences remains close to its original, i.e. beach, level. Where new development takes place, it is advisable that the land should be raised to a level higher than any potential flooding from the sea, i.e. to at least 6.5 metres above Ordnance Datum.
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