Wave Buoy Spares for Teignbridge District Council

Teignbridge District Council are acting as the lead authority for the South West Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme (SWRCMP) which is 100% funded by the Environment Agency (EA). This programme is the largest of the National Coastal Monitoring Programme regions, encompassing 2450 km of coast between Portland Bill in Dorset and Beachley Point on the border with Wales. It was established in 2006 and is in its 4th phase of EA funding (2006-2011, 2011-2016, 2016-2021, 2021-2027). The funding for this phase is over £9m. The programme collects different types of coastal monitoring data, including topographic beach survey data, bathymetric data, LiDAR, aerial photography and habitat mapping. The Programme also has a network of 13 directional wave buoys and tide gauges around the South West coast. This data feeds into a long term dataset showing changes to the beaches and coastline of the South West. It allows us, working with Risk Management Authorities, to better understand the processes affecting our coast ensuring that coastal defence schemes are designed based on reliable information. The wave buoys (Datawell Waverider) are used to monitor the hydrodynamic wave action around the south west and require regular maintenance. In order to carry out this maintenance a number of spares are required. Also due to the location of the buoys it is not uncommon for damage to occur from passing vessels resulting in recovery and repairs to be carried out by the supplier RS Aqua. The following options have been considered: 1. Purchase spares for the Waverider through the appointed contractor 2. Purchase spares for the Waverider direct from the supplier Preferred Option The preferred option is to purchase spares direct from the supplier (option 2). This allows the programme to save 10% of the cost of spares and repairs which would be the mark up from the appointed contractor. The Programme also times its spares purchase to coincide with the spares order from the other regional monitoring programmes, gaining us a 5% discount. Financial The cost for the spares is estimated at £16,370 for FY 21/22 as per the enclosed quotation. This includes the 5% discount. This is an unusually low spares bill due to the timing of the services this year. The cost for the spares is estimated at £40k per year throughout the life of the Coastal Monitoring Programme which is currently funded until the end of March 2027. All costs to TDC of the Coastal Monitoring Programme are recovered by the 100% Environment Agency funding. Provisions for the maintenance of the wave buoy network has been allowed for in the budget for the programme. Timing The spares and repairs will be purchased as and when required to carry out reactive maintenance of the wave buoy network and ensure a stock of regular items is available. It is therefore requested it to approve this spend on wave buoy spares for this, and the next 5 years of the Programme. Ongoing maintenance of the wave buoy network with correct spares is essential to maintain this data collection service.