Block Management in Swanage

Three flood mechanisms converge here. The council says the town has a long history of river, surface water and sea water flooding events, and the greatest risk is from the convergence of all three. The coastal warning area names Shore Road, The Mowlem, The Parade, The Square, the High Street and Peveril Point Road along the front. Behind it, it names Station Road, Commercial Road, Cornwall Road, Kings Road East and Eldon Terrace. The Swan Brook warning area overlaps it and names Victoria Avenue, Kings Road, Chestnut Mew, Church Hill, Springfield Road, Cornwall Road, Commercial Road, Station Road, Institute Road, The Square, Shore Road, the High Street and The Parade. Several streets appear on both lists. The brook is culverted, and the local plan warns that waves can penetrate up Swan Brook with the potential to cause flooding and compression, damaging the culvert alongside Station Road. The Banjo Pier outfall jetty was built in 1993 as part of the Swanage flood alleviation scheme. The beach recharge scheme of 2005 and 2006 removed 19 old timber groynes and built 18 new ones. It placed around 130,000 cubic metres of recharge sediment across a frontage of about 1.5 kilometres from the Mowlem north to Shep's Hollow. The standard of protection is 1 in 300 years over a 50 year scheme life. The beach management plan puts the assets protected at up to 20 million pounds. It costs the next recharge campaign at a present value of 6.8 million pounds against benefits of 55.3 million. Shoreline policy holds the line along the promenade and town centre across all three epochs. It sets managed realignment at New Swanage in the longest term and no active intervention on the undeveloped stretch toward Handfast Point. A block on a street named in both warning areas should have that dual exposure disclosed to its insurer.

Low, and the town centre lower still. Of the 25 one-kilometre squares intersecting the parish, fifteen are in the lowest band and four are class 2. Six are at class 3, 3 to 5 per cent, and those sit on the Purbeck limestone and chalk margins rather than in the town. The town centre is in the lowest band. There, all parts of the square are in the lowest band with under 1 per cent of homes at or above the action level, and radon measurement is not advised. A block in the town centre needs no radon testing on the published advice, but one on the limestone or chalk margins should have its own square checked.

That is national advice about the ground, not about the building. The same map excludes basements, cellars and underground spaces at every band, so an enclosed plant room, undercroft or lower-ground flat is still worth a look even here, and whatever is found belongs with the compliance record.