Work to replace the failing Stokes Bay seawall in Gosport has begun and will take 14 weeks to complete.

Contractors Suttle Projects are carrying out the £1.2m replacement scheme with work predicted on the seawall and Alverbank East Car Park to come in on time and on budget.

The 135m replacement seawall at Stokes Bay will help protect local infrastructure, like Stokes Bay Road, houses and businesses from flooding and erosion risk.

Andy Pearce, from Coastal Partners, at the Gosport Borough Council Community & Environment Board meeting on June 19, said “It’s a really good news story, we have a marine licence, closed the funding gap and we are onsite.

“Work has started on the seawall clearing the ground of concrete obstructions. The car park will be made good.”

The time between the initial drawings and construction increased the risk of the wall failing as it turned inwards.

This has been reconciled by a slight adjustment of a new concrete pile seawards to minimise the encroachment on the Special Protected Area and heritage features, said the council report. 

The Alverbank East Car Park has been closed for two to three years but seawater drainage will be fixed and it will be reopened by the end of September.