Littlestone-on-Sea (South and North)

Littlestone-on-Sea is fronted by a concrete seawall backed by a strip of shingle backshore, which extends to the coast road. The wall has a crest level of about 6.3mOD, which is approximately 1.0m above the 100 year water level. All the housing is to the landward of the road. Progressing northwards parts of the shingle backshore abutting the wall have a concrete pavement. The front face of the wall is not visible but the wall crest has extensive cracking at the joints of the coping and on the pavement. The shingle beach, which is virtually at wall crest level, provides good protection against wave attack.

The lower foreshore is sandy. The width from the low water mark to the high water mark of medium tides reduces from 400m at the southern end to 200m at the northern end. The upper shingle beach is supplemented by periodic artificial recharge using material won from Dungeness Point (17/1). The recharge, which varies between 2000m3 and 5000m3 pa takes place between here and St Mary's Bay (Figure 6.4), with the unmade roadway in front of the golf course providing an access route. As a result of high beach levels the long timber groynes are partly buried. The lower ends of the groynes, where they extend onto the sandy foreshore, are in a semi-derelict state. They appear to have little impact on the condition of the lower foreshore, with no beach level differential evident across them.

The northern part of the frontage has a concrete stepped wall, a pavement at 6.3mOD and a low rear concrete wall at 6.7mOD. The crest of the front wall and the pavement have extensive cracking and show signs of recent repair, whilst the rear wall is sound.