20 September in Swanage

Our team were delighted to be part of Discovery Fest, Planet Purbeck & Dorset Coast Forum’s family-friendly festival by the sea. Our ‘office’ for the day had a great view and we were serenaded by some fantastic live music throughout the event.

We had some good discussions about a variety of schemes we are delivering to manage flooding and coastal change and some of the ways that we enhance our environment, but primarily we were there to showcase how and why the material that makes up our beaches changes from the finer sediment seen in Swanage to coarse shingle and stones at Hurst Spit.

People could see and feel how the beach material changes and learn how it migrates from Swanage, moving eastwards until it deflects off Hurst Spit, creating the large underwater banks offshore including Shingles Bank, Dolphin Bank and Dolphin Sands. There was general support for our ambition to work with nature to use this stored resource for the benefit of our coastline in our local ‘sediment cell’ which stretches from Durlston to Hurst and we’ll have more to share about this in the coming months.

Dorset Coast Forum’s Coastal Champions

Before the heavens opened and the rain washed us all away (!!), I was delighted to spot my colleague Alan Frampton (our Strategy, Policy & Environment Manager) featured in Dorset Coast Forum’s current Coastal Life Stories exhibition. This free travelling exhibition tells the inspiring and diverse stories of people who live and work along Dorset’s beautiful coastline, and will be visiting several coastal venues throughout October and until 14th November. More > 30 year Celebrations 2025 | Dorset Coast Forum