Up to the mid 1980’s Seaford had a true ALL YEAR ROUND amenity beach, one which provided safe bathing, good shore fishing etc. In effect we had individual beaches of clean, sea washed shingle lying between groynes- much like Eastbourne has today in fact. Largely due to the escalating costs of maintaining the groyne structures, there was increasing concern that the continued ability of the beach to prevent flooding was likely to be compromised unless another, more what we call today “cost effective” solution was found.
At around the same time (1983-4) a planning application was lodged for the building of the houses that are now along the seafront at the west end of the salts recreation ground.  A detailed engineering survey of the integrity of the promenade was undertaken as a result of this application and unearthed a major structural defect in the promenade which in fact was a hole described at the time as being the size of a “double decker bus”!   An urgent backfilling exercise was carried out to plug this hole but it seems now that perhaps this was the very first black hole known to mankind, because the back fill material just basically disappeared, never to be seen again!
It was obvious that, unless an alternative solution could be found, and found quickly, there was not only a real risk of serious flooding if the promenade were to be broached by the next big storm but, obviously of more importance, that there was also a serious risk of loss of life.
At around the same time also Southern Water took over responsibility for flood prevention from the Newhaven and Seaford Sea Defence Commissioners.  Basically, two alternative solutions were considered, one being an off shore artificial reef, the other massive shingle replenishment to quickly replace the shingle that had been lost to the sea over the previous years. Bearing in mind the urgency at the time it was decided that the shingle replenishment scheme was the most practical- as it was relatively quick to do and what we now call “cost effective”.
3 million tonnes of shingle were imported by sea, together with massive Spanish granite rocks which were placed against the promenade – it was quite an operation at the time.  This is the scheme we still have today, 20 years on - one long sweeping shingle beach.
At this point it is worth pointing out that it is the shingle beach that prevents Seaford from flooding, not the promenade.  If the sea ever does reach the promenade in its full fury, Seaford’s flood defences truly would again be in serious danger of being breached, as they were in the 80’s.