Redcar'S sea wall is likely to be rebuilt at a cost of £3.44m after discussions with fishermen and lifeboat crews.

But because of objections, plans for an offshore breakwater, also approved last year by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, will not now go ahead.

Problems surfaced five years ago when storms washed away a metre of sand.

Marine scientists told the council that waves were predicted to crash on to Redcar's sands with increasing ferocity because of climate changes.

The vanishing sands are threatening to undermine slipways, and could affect leisure use of the beach.

But fishermen and lifeboat crews were concerned about a proposed breakwater scheme.

A meeting took place in June between fishermen, lifeboatmen and the contractors chosen to carry out the work.

Dave Cammish, from Redcar Lifeboat, said the Royal National Lifeboat Institute welcomed the decision to reconstruct the sea wall.

He said the RNLI went to the meeting to give views on safety.

It felt that a breakwater would create problems for fishermen returning to Redcar, because it would alter the natural protection they got from three scars.

He said: "We would welcome anything that protects Redcar from the sea, so long as it isn't detrimental to people who earn a living from the sea."

The main reason the breakwater scheme was rejected was because of concerns raised by English Nature for wading birds, which have made their habitat on the rocks.

The breakwater would have destroyed that habitat.

In a report to the council executive, Ralph Ferguson, Redcar and Cleveland's director of technical services, said: "It was clear construction of the breakwater would create an unacceptable obstruction for fishing boats and, in particular, the Redcar lifeboat.

"The offshore breakwater proposal was rejected and it was considered that no alternative sites were available for the construction of a breakwater."

Money for the reconstruction will come from the council's coastal protection capital budget, with grant help.

Experts say the scheme is the simplest and most effective answer to the problem.

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