I have spent most of today trying to get some sort of response from Thanet District Council over the safety of the cliff.The main thing that I have been trying to achieve in the short term is to stop heavy vehicles going up onto the cliff top near the edge, until the cliff façade has been properly investigated and proven to be safe.
My obvious concern is that they are taking a considerable risk in not preventing vehicular access to the footpath above the site immediately.
My feelings are that a Catch 22 situation has developed in the council, whereby if the put up signs or barriers to prevent vehicles from going up there, they are admitting that all may not be well with the £1m contract repair that they have signed of as being done properly.
I have had an email from the council saying that the investigation work is being done by Cardy Construction the main contractor and developer’s partner in the project and that council officers were present at part of the investigation.
They have also told me that the council holds no report on the investigation work.
I have had no assurances from the council that the cliff is in fact safe, or that the façade has adequate foundations.
A big problem with man made cliff façades is that they often make the eventual collapse much worse as both enough unstable chalk has to build up behind them to cause the concrete barrier to fail and when it does the big lumps of concrete that fall tend to do a lot of damage.
The picture above is of a previous Ramsgate cliff collapse and the link leads to more pictures of collapses http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/collapse/
Some heavy bits of facing with section of chalk cliff falling with it would surely impact into a building 4m away with pretty disastrous results? Is Royal Sands up to a spec to have this hit its back wall and withstand the blow? Well done, yet again, Michael for showing just what a cliff collapse looks like. No wonder they are checking out the work on the cliff facade again. Without your perseverence and badgering, would this be happening? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteGot to accept erosion happens even behind defences and sometimes its best to let it go hopefully without a few people following it.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant info as always from you.
ReplyDeleteMust try and get you the photo's of the road collapse on Marina Road Viaduct. Maybe you could link this in somewhere too.
11.57 I would very much appreciate that as I have the council engineer assuring me still that this structure can support any vehicle allowed on UK roads and requires no weight limit.
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