WORK on a £2.5million scheme to shore up seafront cliffs at Poole is on target to be completed by the end of spring, BCP Council says.
The Canford Cliffs stabilisation project, which started in September last year, was agreed following a landslip in February 2017 when a section of cliff eroded and slipped, coming to rest half way down the cliff face.
The landslip in 2017
This led to a block of beach huts at the foot of the cliffs being sealed off amid fears they could be crushed by further landslides.
Read: Work to investigate stability of cliffs in Poole to take place after landslip
Engineers have been working to stabilise the cliffs by driving soil nails up to 15-meters long into the embankment, using long reach excavators from the cliff top above and promenade below.
Now they have erected an expanse of steel netting.
A BCP Council spokesman told the Echo: "We are pleased to say that 95 per cent of the soil nails have been installed and are being covered with high tensile steel netting. These will work together to stabilise the cliff.
"We have installed more than half of the netting and work is progressing well to finish the other areas.
"Once all the netting is in place, the cliff face will be seeded with a native vegetation to better support our local insect life and provide more opportunity for birds to feed.
“We aim to complete the scheme by the end of spring, however this is subject to weather conditions."
The initiative is part of a wider £7.3 million project that includes the conversion of the current art deco-style beach pavilion into a terraced cafe, with refurbished public toilets, a new ranger station and four new beach huts.
Members of an open water swimming club recently campaigned for a changing area to be incorporated into the design of the cafe.
Read: Beachfront pavilion will have space for open water swimmers
In 2017, at Canford Cliffs, a section of cliff roughly 10 metres by 0.5 metres slipped down the face.
However, over the past decades there have been significant cliff slips in the area.
The first two happened in the 1970s and one of these left a block of beach huts demolished - a block which was only reinstated in 2014.
The third significant landslide took place in 1993.
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