Coastal works proposed for Carnoustie have been criticised as a ”knee jerk” response to the risk of flooding.
Improvement work is expected to go ahead at the mouth of the Barry Burn, comprising replacement of tank blocks and sand dunes with rock armour and a retaining wall.
The work is being done in response to a Scottish Environment Protection Agency report which establishes a flooding risk to Carnoustie Golf Course and the Links Parade in the event of a major storm.
However Carnoustie Sailing Club committee member Iain Graham is concerned that no amount of protection of this type would stop Barry Burn, a natural inlet, from flooding in such a freakish circumstance.
A defence akin to the Thames Barrier would need to stretch along its width in order to stop such flooding.
Mr Graham told The Courier: ”They could throw a million tons of rock armour at Barry Burn and it wouldn’t make any difference, if the sort of event SEPA describes happened.
”They are talking about something that is a one-in-200 kind of storm, and we’ve never seen anything remotely like that in Carnoustie.
”This is the last bit of beach left and people won’t be able to walk along the beach if the armour is put up.”
Mr Graham wrote a letter of objection to the council but has received the reply that it is only acting in accordance with SEPA’s guidance.
He noted that the sailing club has not been consulted or informed of the application and added: ”I am sure that more can be done to accommodate sailing in Carnoustie but it seems by this application that there has been no consideration to those of us that use it and bring a pleasant vista to those who frequent the beach locals and tourists alike including the emergency services.
”I shall be taking this matter up with the Carnoustie Sailing Club committee to reinforce my personal objection to this ill thought-out, knee jerk reaction to a little bit of seasonal erosion.”
Angus Council seeks full planning permission for rock armour at the site, which measures around 2,500 square metres north of the mouth of the Barry Burn and extends some 200 metres north along the coast.
The application site adjacent to the mouth of the Barry Burn contains a 25-metre long section of tank traps and tank blocks, which act as partial reinforcements.
The remainder of the application site consists of a section of sandy dunes and the coastline to the north and south of the application site already has coastal defences.
The proposal has been recommended for approval at Tuesday’s meeting of the development standards committee in Forfar.