Portland Bill to Thorncombe Beacon 4
General actions for this subsection
There are no actions generic to the whole of this subsection. For actions relating to specific locations, select an area on the map above or use the postcode/location search and click on the Action Plan tab.
All actions are subject to funding and approval, often by other parties than the Lead Organisation shown.
Download SMP documents
The information on this website represents the current SMP management approaches adopted by the local authorities within its area, and current actions needed to deliver them. These management approaches have been approved by the Environment Agency under its Strategic Overview for coastal flood and erosion risk management and are considered to be local policy.
The documents below provide the full SMP adopted locally and approved by the Environment Agency at the time of publication. Some of the information has changed in response to new government policy, new evidence or new work identified.
Data on this page
Main report
Appendices
- Appendix A - SMP Development
- Appendix B - Stakeholder Engagement
- Appendix C - Baseline Process Understanding
- Appendix D - Sea Environmental Baseline Report
- Appendix E - Issues and Objectives Evaluation
- Appendix F - Initial Policy Appraisal and Scenario Development
- Appendix G - Preferred Policy Scenario Testing
- Appendix H - Economic Appraisal and Sensitivity Testing
- Appendix I - Strategic Environmental Assessment Report
- Appendix J - Appropriate Assessment Report
- Appendix K - Water Framework Directive Assessment Report
- Appendix L - Metadata and Bibliographic Databases
- Appendix M - Action Plan Summary Tables
Supporting Documents
About this subsection
The eastern flank of the Isle of Portland is dominated by steep cliffs of Portland Stone, interacting with other rock types that have led to landslip in the northern section at West Weares. This stretch of coast is otherwise dominated by Chesil Beach, an 18-mile shingle barrier beach ending at the holiday village of West Bay at the mouth of the River Brit. The coast in this section of the SMP is a popular tourist attraction for the area.
Between Portland and West Bay the coast is almost entirely undeveloped, except for scattered small villages, small holiday parks and beach access points. It lies within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is part of the UNESCO “Jurassic Coast” World Heritage Site. Chesil Beach shelters England’s largest saline lagoon, The Fleet, for over eight miles from the neck of the Isle of Portland. West Bexington and Burton Mere form smaller wetland areas behind the vegetated shingle at the western end of Chesil Beach. Otherwise, the back of the shoreline is dominated by agriculture. Between West Bay and Thorncombe Beacon, a series of geological layers build unstable cliffs that are liable to slippage.
Chesil Beach and Stennis Ledges Marine Conservation Zone incorporates the nearshore and lagoon areas of The Fleet. The entire shoreline in this subsection apart from West Bay itself is legally protected for its internationally important wildlife.