A £30 million scheme to give more than 3,000 homes on the Sussex coastline better protection from flooding is to start in April.

The project will safeguard properties along a 9km stretch between Eastbourne and Bexhill, including the high flood-risk area of Pevensey Bay.

Under a pioneering initiative, the Hampshire-based partnership Pentium will take over management and improvement of defences from the Environment Agency.

Residents were concerned that talks between the two would cause big launch delays, but work will start within three months.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "There have been lengthy negotiations, but it is important for both sides to get it right and this scheme will be of great benefit to residents.

"We are looking at a start in April."

Work has already begun west of Beachy Head on sea defence improvements, but the Pevensey Bay area was one of the worst affected by storms which lashed the south coast last month.

Bad weather and some of the highest tides on record meant dozens of people had to be evacuated from their seaside homes in the Bay and Cooden Beach as defences were breached.

East Sussex County Councillor Roger Thomas, whose ward includes Pevensey Bay and Normans Bay, also sits on the southern regional flood defence committee and

Sussex local flood defence committee.

He has campaigned for money to be spent on sea and flood defences and for residents to press the Government for action. He said the news would be a relief.

He added: "There were lots of problems caused by the storms over Christmas and some residents, particularly the elderly, have been concerned about whether the scheme would go ahead and on time.

"Despite what some people may have thought, the contract is on target and I have an assurance it will start on time."

Under the project, the first of its kind in the UK, the Environment Agency will give Pentium around £1 million

a year to carry out work,

which includes replacing groynes along the coastline, similar to the scheme

completed at Eastbourne.

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