Overnight surveys found no breach along the headland, though the path above the cliffs stays closed.

Latest, 9.40am: Engineers who walked the full length of the headland defences overnight have reported no breach and no significant damage to the sea wall, after the highest spring tide in ten years peaked at 4.12am at 6.38 metres above chart datum. The cliff path between the lighthouse steps and Gull Point remains closed while geologists assess a section where loose material fell onto the beach below.

The tide was forecast to reach 6.30 metres. Coastguard officers said a moderate onshore wind added several centimetres, and spray was thrown over the promenade rail at the north end of the front for about forty minutes either side of high water. Two cars parked on the lower esplanade were moved by the council before midnight; no vehicles were damaged.

What the overnight surveys found

Four survey teams from the council’s coastal engineering unit worked in pairs from 2am, checking the wall, the rock armour below the bandstand and the flood gates at the harbour entrance. Each section was photographed and compared with images taken before the tide. The teams found minor scouring at the foot of the wall near the old lifeboat slip and a cracked capping stone on the promenade, both of which have been logged for repair.

The flood gates at the harbour were closed at 1.30am and reopened at 6.15am. Water reached within 40 centimetres of the top of the gates, the closest it has come since they were installed eight years ago. Harbour staff said the gates performed as designed. Pumps at the low-lying fish market behind the gates were switched on as a precaution at 3am but were not needed, and traders were able to set up for the morning auction as usual.

“The wall did exactly what it was built to do. What we are watching now is the cliff above it, which is a different problem and one that the sea wall cannot solve on its own,” said Fiona Achterberg, the council’s principal coastal engineer, speaking on the promenade at first light.

Why the cliff path stays shut

Ms Achterberg said a strip of clay and soil roughly 15 metres long had slumped from the upper face of the cliff below the path at about 3am. No one was on the path, which had been closed as a precaution from 8pm. The path will remain shut at least until the weekend, and possibly longer if the ground continues to move. Fencing has been placed at both ends, and wardens are turning walkers back at the lighthouse steps.

The beach below the slump is also closed between the café and the groynes. The council has asked dog walkers in particular to stay off the sand at low tide, when the area looks accessible but is directly under the unstable section.

Through the day

  • The afternoon high tide at 4.38pm is forecast at 6.21 metres; the harbour gates will close again from 2.45pm.
  • The lower esplanade car park stays closed until 7pm.
  • The number 14 bus will divert via Upper Terrace between 2pm and 6pm.
  • The cliff path and the beach below it remain closed until further notice.

Tide levels are expected to fall back over the next three days as the spring cycle passes. The environment agency has kept its flood alert for the headland and the lower harbour in place until tomorrow morning but said it did not expect to raise it to a warning unless the wind strengthens.

Residents on Marine Parade, several of whom stayed up through the night, described a noisy but uneventful high tide. Desmond Lyle, who has lived in a ground-floor flat on the front for thirty years, said he had put sandbags across his door as he does each spring. “It looked dramatic from the window,” he said. “But it stayed on the other side of the wall, which is all you ask.”

This summary will be updated after the afternoon tide.