Beneficial Use of Dredging in the Solent Project (BUDs Solent )
There is a strong desire amongst Solent Forum members to find solutions to the many barriers which are preventing the effective use of dredged material to augment Solent intertidal sites and provide other benefits associated with restoration work (especially enhanced coastal protection). The BuDS Solent project is seeking to address these issues; the Forum’s role is to convene the Solent BuDS project group that oversees the work and facilitate communication. The project is currently in Phase 4.
Project Aims and Objectives
'Bring about beneficial use of dredging within one or more Solent sites, using an incrementally phased approach to scope and cost sediment sourcing and sediment receiver sites, building a system of protocols and guidance.'
Objectives:
- Identify a set of criteria to help assess the suitability of the sites (including type of material, volume of sediment, accessibility of site, potential partnership funding, value of the site as habitat or flood and coastal management, other engineering challenges).
- Identify site(s) within the Solent where beneficial use would be most practical and beneficial, providing a high level of cost benefit analysis, aligning costs and benefits to regulatory bodies.
- Work in partnership with a range of regional stakeholders to find solutions to known challenges based on their knowledge and existing shoreline strategies. To especially examine regulatory barriers to include smothering of existing habitat and contaminated waste concerns.
- Develop a strong feasibility case for undertaking significant ‘regional flagship’ beneficial use project(s) in the Solent, and enable the implementation of that project through further phases.
- Develop a love mapping system so that receiver sites can call for sediment.
- Ensure that there is a collaborative exchange of lessons between the regional work of the Solent Forum and other initiatives being undertaken at a national level by parties such as the RSPB, MMO, ABPmer or The Crown Estate. Specifically to ensure that the work leads to systems (such as the love mapping system) that can be replicated and that protocols and guidance are developed.
Project Phases
The project is being operated in phases.
Phase 1 - Project Scoping and Partnership Working
Phase 1 of the project was contracted to ABPmer, it included:
- Literature review of previous Solent work, issues, challenges and constraints, including understanding of national context and drawing upon past review work.
- High level review of beneficial use projects in Solent. Detail required on criteria for assessment, how to measure efficacy, using best practice and lessons learnt of projects elsewhere.
- Create a high level strategic GIS planning map of Solent dredge locations and disposal sites and areas of potential value for recharge work.
- Build a stakeholder network for the exchange of information (the project group is the core). Survey relevant Solent Authorities and stakeholder network for potential donor material and receiver sites.
- High-level feasibility study including cost benefit analysis and costing of proposals to undertake beneficial use project (highlighting the range of beneficiaries).
Outputs
Phase 2 – Feasibility and Stakeholder Working
Feasibility Study and Detailed Cost Benefit
Develop options for the Solent for a project(s) for beneficial use within a set time period and for preferred options to develop full feasibility plans for actual use of dredging at some key sites. The key site selected was the western Solent and Lymington Marshes. To consider whether a scheme may be a one off or one that can be repeated. This study to detail exact timings and costs of sources of sediment to match with receiver site needs,identify funding sources for complete projects and firm up costs so as to fully calculate cost benefit. Licences and permissions to be fully scoped and EIAs conducted. The consultants ABPmer were contracted for this work.
Output
Phase 2 report was published in February 2020.
Stakeholder Working
Key stakeholders helped develop strategic guidance and a protocol. Led by the Solent Forum it built on from Phase 1 work, using workshops and stakeholder meetings. Specifically it:
- Explored funding for phase 3 and developed tender material.
- Developed lessons learned on maintenance dredge and disposal licensing.
- Feedback the mapping of Solent dredge locations and disposal sites and areas of potential value for recharge work to national players to provide detailed matching analysis.
Phase 3 - Licencing and Operating System of Beneficial Use Dredgings’
Phase 3 aimed to secure a Marine Licence (and any other necessary consents) that would enable the bottom placement of sediment in two locations in the western Solent (west of Lymington), by third parties operating under their own dredge disposal licence. See the project brief for more information. This phase started in April 2021 and concluded in Autumn 2024.
The work included a disposal site characterisation assessment and the submission of a MMO marine licence application for two new beneficial use sites in the Lymington saltmarshes. A short report summarises the work and the MMO's response. The report concluded that the marine licence application for the bottom placement of sediment in two locations in the Western Solent (west of Lymington) should be withdrawn, rather than allowing it to be refused by the MMO, which allows the possibility of the application being revised and resubmitted.
Phase 4 - Delivery of a Two Donor Site Marine Licence Application at the Cockleshell Disposal Site, Lymington
Lymington Harbour Commissioners have put forward a proposal for BuDS Solent Phase 4 which will repurpose the withdrawn BuDS Solent Phase 3 Marine Licence and Disposal Site Characterisation Assessment. It is to deliver a two donor site Marine Licence application for the Lymington disposal site at Cockleshell. The Harbour Commissioners would be the licence holder.
Solent Forum
