Observer Column 14 November 2025

The Foreshore prepares for winter, Cllr Tony Collins, chair of the charity committee

As winter approaches, the Coastal Maintenance team at Hastings Borough Council prepares. The staff are committed and resourceful, which is just as well: our coastline generates any number of challenges from extreme weather to dead dolphins.

The Foreshore Trust owns the land along the Hastings and St Leonards foreshore, but sea defences lie with the council, which is responsible for preventing coastal flooding. The team keeps a meticulous watch on weather data and tide tables.

The most visible consequence of winter weather is shifting shingle. Each year storms surging up the Channel push tens of thousands of tons from west to east. In late autumn, and again in early spring, diggers and lorries remove material from the Rock a Nore area and carry the pebbles back towards Bo Peep. It would be ruinously expensive to keep such equipment on standby, so Hastings contracts out this service.

The groynes, over 100 of them, play a critical role in stabilising our beaches. Our seas take their toll even on these huge structures, which regularly need maintenance and repair. Such work continues right through the year. 

Winter storms cast drifts of shingle onto the promenade. Each storm creates days of work for council staff. During the roughest weather HBC is likely to close the cycle link at Bulverhythe. Officers coordinate with Parkrun and other events to adapt routes appropriately.

Winter also brings debris. Four abandoned vessels have been stranded on Hastings coast in the last eighteen months. Resolving ownership and taking legal action to get them removed can be a complex task. Recently maintenance officers recovered a navigational buoy, which had floated all the way from Southend, and returned it to its owners.

Maintenance staff carry out daily inspections, as new issues appear with every tide. Clots of palm oil, for instance, are common in winter. Vegetable oils are regularly transported by ship. Sometimes crews flush out a vessel’s storage tanks at sea to avoid contaminating the next delivery. In the cold waters around the UK, such oils can solidify and wash ashore, even if they originally entered the sea many miles from land. Palm oil is harmless to people, but dangerous to dogs (if your dog ingests it, call a vet). Long-term exposure to seawater can turn it rancid, so don’t touch it: report it online at My Hastings. 

The winter rains trigger overflows from local sewage works. HBC staff and volunteers are currently dealing with bio-beads – small plastic beads used in effluent treatment – which escaped from Eastbourne Wastewater Treatment Works when screens failed in late October. Questions are being asked of Southern Water. If you see the beads, don’t touch them: report to My Hastings.