Discussion on Papers 18–20

MR SHAVE, Paper 20

The philosophy behind shingle recharge is very simple - successive conventional approaches with solid defences had all failed to secure the longterm stability required of these sea defences.

Considerable thought was given to the use of the naturally occurring shingle material. It was acknowledged that littoral drift was present on each of these lengths of coastline, but it was also known where the material finished up. This meant that successive recycling appeared to be a practical proposition to make good the losses that would inevitably take place over the years. To put the Pett scheme into perspective it must be remembered that this was a pioneering scheme that (as far as I am aware) had not been attempted on such a scale before, and that it was carried out almost 30 years ago.