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In December 2013, over 150 homes and businesses were flooded, and Lowestoft was affected for many days after the tidal surge. As the only coastal town in the UK undefended from coastal flooding, this triggered the need for action and the introduction of Lowestoft Flood Protection scheme.

In Autumn 2023 the construction of the tidal walls were completed, protecting many homes and businesses. The remaining element of the project, the tidal barrier, is expected to begin construction in 2025.

The tidal flood walls, whilst they provide some protection from a tidal surge, are not enough to provide all the protection that is needed. That will only be in place when the tidal barrier is completed. In the meantime, the existing temporary flood barriers will be used to supplement the protection provided by the completed tidal flood walls.

The costs for the Lowestoft Flood Protection scheme are in line with similar barrier schemes in this country at £200m+. This has been costed from 60% design, which provides this figure a level of cost certainty.

East Suffolk Council is the only local authority in the UK managing a scheme of this size and nature. This is also the only tidal barrier being built in the UK where a major Port needs to remain operational.

During the design phase for the tidal barrier, and as a result of crippling cost increases relating to materials, labour, design changes and inflation, a £124m funding gap emerged.

The project team has engaged with both the Government and the Environment Agency (EA) to seek the necessary additional funding needed to complete the project.

£15 million has been spent on the project to date, and this sum is accounted for with funds that have already been pledged. However, the project is scheduled to spend an additional £20 million from January to July 2024 and this amount cannot be covered by pledged funds, creating a £20 million risk for the Council.

Nevertheless, it is now clear that there is no immediate prospect of funding requests being met by the Government or EA, and therefore East Suffolk Council has been left with no alternative but to halt work on the tidal barrier element of the scheme.

East Suffolk Council will continue to work with the Environment Agency and the Government to secure funding for the tidal barrier.

1.5km of tidal flood walls were completed in October 2023. These provide some protection from the risk of tidal flooding to Hamilton Road, Waveney Road, Station Square and along the South Pier.

East Suffolk Council also owns 1.4km of temporary tidal defences, which were purchased to provide some protection to Lowestoft while the permanent scheme was completed. These will be used together with the completed tidal flood walls to provide better protection to some of the most vulnerable areas of Lowestoft.

Suffolk County Council led on a scheme to better protect areas at risk of flooding from rivers and rainfall. A pumping station on Kirkley Stream was completed in summer 2021 and more than 120 homes have been fitted with property level resilience measures.

Flood modelling completed as part of the scheme took into account the whole area. The flood walls along Hamilton Road reduce the flood risk to the Power Park area significantly. There is an existing risk of overtopping of the existing defences close to the site occupied by Birds Eye. This overtopping is managed through the existing drainage in the area.

Sewers are the responsibility of Anglian Water. As part of the scheme, we have identified a number of outflows in the harbour area, most of which have flap valve on them to prevent tidal waters entering into the sewers. The scheme has installed an additional valve as part of the tidal walls construction by Station Square.

The holes in the ABP boundary wall opposite Station Square are to provide drainage from any excess surface water from the A47 across the quayside into the Trawl Basin. The ABP boundary wall is not part of the tidal flood defence. At this location the tidal defence is provided by a series of demountable flood barriers on the ABP quayside. In the event of a tidal surge, these demountable defences will be deployed as part of a wider deployment plan for all the flood defences in Lowestoft.

The drainage holes were a requirement of a planning condition for the tidal flood walls, to ensure existing surface water drainage issues were not made worse at this location.