A recent landslip on the Underbarn only 500 metres from the site

Unstable Land

Home Page       Introduction       Environment & SSSI       Local policies       Unstable land       Rare and protected species       Overdevelopment, inconvenience & tourism       Heritage       Contacts      

Register your views about policy and development boundaries by sending an email to Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and Ken Reed.

This land is known to be unstable and potentially unstable. We are not convinced that it can be made stable. Permission to build should be granted only where any actual or potential instability problems can be overcome without having an adverse effect on the stability of adjoining land and the amenity of the local environment. Development should be permitted only where it can be demonstrated, through independent assessment, that the site is either sufficiently stable or capable of being stabilised to support the proposals. This has not been done.

The two engineer’s reports submitted with this planning application are not independent and impartial. Even so they give little confidence in the stability of the site.

In order to protect the properties from erosion a larger toe than this would need to be built for the whole length of Castle Cove beach. It would then need to be topped by a high fence to provide security.

The engineer reports that three of the five levels of the site are not stable. There is a significant risk both during and following completion of the development that the piling and weight will result in further landslips. The developer’s contention that this work will improve stability is not substantiated. On the contrary, it will be likely to cause slips and damage to local property, the public road and services and the SSSI.

Slips caused by the development could block the road and beach and cut essential services including water and sewerage. This would affect many households in the area and hundreds of people. It is understood that recent essential stabilisation work at Newton's Cove using similar methods to those proposed for this site has resulted in land slips affecting adjacent properties.

Home Page       Introduction       Environment & SSSI       Local policies       Unstable land       Rare and protected species       Overdevelopment, inconvenience & tourism       Heritage       Contacts      

This site is created and maintained by Ken Reed.