Barmouth resident Kyle Smith fears Barmouth's flood defence plans will affect business, tourism and safety

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00:00YGC are intending to put in a planning application for a 50 year flood defence plan consisting

00:07of putting 86,000 tonnes of rock that will be 80 metres wide from the Minamore to the

00:13north end of the prom, claiming approximately 21,600 square metres of usable soft sand beach

00:20space.

00:22Removal of remaining groins after the 80 metres of rock armour would allow 26,400 square metres

00:29of sand to move freely further down south, like it has historically done since the creation

00:35of the causeway to Ernest Abraut and the lack of or no maintenance of the groin structures.

00:43This image is from a study done in 2011 and it shows how a shoreline sediment movement with

00:48the groin removal this will only increase the sand on the main beach that is already causing

00:53big issues on the promenade, the main road and the big car park.

00:57This short clip shows a similar flood defence scheme that YGC completed up North Wales and

01:04I believe this is going to be something similar that we are going to have on our main beach.

01:08Within the 2099 pages YGC have submitted for the general public to read, there is no computer

01:14generated images for the general public to get a clear view or understanding of what they

01:18wish to do.

01:27In April 2024, a teenager got stuck in the rock armour in a similar scheme in Tawin, a

01:38major multi-agency operation involving the use of specialist heavy lifting machinery was

01:43conducted against a rising tide.

01:46If this was to happen in Barmouth, I would find it very difficult to get any heavy lifting

01:50machinery here when there is queues of traffic that stand still all the way back to Bonthie.

01:56YGC are also proposing a 1700 millimetre high wall which will be 5.5 foot that will run from

02:04the coast guard station all the way down to the north end of the prom.

02:08This wall would approximately be 2 metres 250 millimetre high from the actual foot level

02:15of the primary wall.

02:17I believe this secondary wall to be too high and I think a metre would be sufficient enough.

02:26The next 10 images display potential floodgates on the main road, one by the primary school,

02:34one by the coast guard and one by a tired heli.

02:38These will be closed in the storms, there is no mention on what scale of weather these will

02:44be closed and who operates them and how long they will be closed for.

02:49The floodgates are in black and the height of the secondary wall is in blue.

03:00These images are pretty accurate to the 1700 height they would like to use.

03:06If all gates are shut during an emergency the only access will be a single lane road down

03:13Marine Road which is fine for the police, ambulance but it's no good for a fire engine.

03:21Within the 2,099 pages there is no mention of a fire plan, a fire engine or the fire service

03:29and I believe this to be the main concerning reason why the whole planning application should

03:34be put on stop until the fire plan is put in place.

03:40This image is taken during the storm of 2014 when many parts of West Wales flooded, several

03:45sections of the central and secretary walls collapsed due to excessive water pressure and the lack

03:51of adequate drainage trying to handle approximately 8 million litres of water.

03:57In YGC's proposals there is no modification to the drainage system.

04:03This image is provided from a document called Shoreline Management Plan 2.

04:09It's been available since 2011 and it's used by England and Wales to help engineers and councils

04:19design and manage their sea defences.

04:26From 2055 it is stated that Barmouth North will be managed realignment.

04:33As it mentions this may include relocation of properties.

04:39So we all know our neighbours across the estuary Fairbourn have been awarded the grand name

04:44of the first refugees of climate change because the council thought it cost too much to provide

04:52Fairbourn with a flood defence. But in reality, how much is it going to cost to decommission Fairbourn?

04:59And this will be happening up and down the coast if nothing's done about this shoreline management plan,

05:06which I believe needs a review.

05:08I'm not denying that Barmouth doesn't need a flood defence, but I just don't agree with some or most of the proposals YGC are offering.

05:21There's better options out there where we could keep our beach, have an artificial reef, keep the holidaymakers

05:27coming here and keep our little town going. At the moment, it doesn't look very promising for the future of Barmouth.

05:35Thank you for taking your time to listen to this. Please send your concerns over to the email attached above. Thank you.

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