The Thames-Coromandel District Council is working on options to prevent further beach erosion at Flaxmill Bay.

Last July, the king tides and extreme weather combined to cause significant erosion at Flaxmill Bay and Cooks Beach.

A council representative says they are progressing on different options to help stop the erosion.

'We have a current resource consent application with Waikato Regional Council for a staged rock revetment at Cooks Beach that will transition to a backstop wall and, ultimately, to a soft option (dune plantings) to protect this beach.

'We are currently finalising the preliminary design drawings for the application, with updates to the beach access and landscaping enhancements.

'Once we have these design drawings together we will come back to the community for an update on the project, process and cost to complete this within this financial year (June 2019).”

The council are working on a second resource consent application to build a trial groyne at Flaxmill Bay, which is a low wall extending from the beach into the sea to reduce sediment movement.

Thames-Coromandel District Council Coastal Engineer Jan van der Vliet says the community is aware of the need to care for the coastline.

'We are pleased to be making progress on these two projects to address coastal erosion in Flaxmill Bay and Cooks Beach and we will continue to keep the community updated as we work through the process.”