How 14,000 tonnes of Norwegian granite will help protect Jaywick from flooding

• Watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Callum Fairhurst

Some 14,000 tonnes of Norwegian granite, 150 steel piles and 330 metres of reinforced concrete have been used to build a new wall to protect a vulnerable seaside community.

The Cockett Wick Seawall is designed to ensure more than 3,000 homes and businesses at Jaywick and Seawick in Essex are better protected from tidal flooding.

The £12m wall is an expansion of an existing defence, which in the past has had its problems.

"Particular parts of this wall were very low lying and even in 2018 there were evacuation orders from storm surge," said Caroline Douglass from the Environment Agency.

"So being able to put this wall in place means that the local communities that are behind that wall are no longer at risk."

The completed sea wall is part of the Essex and South Suffolk Shoreline Management Plan which aims to protect seaside communities.

It is a plan that is vital for the East - with coastal surges of the past having taken lives across the region.

The most deadly occured in 1953, when the North Sea floods claimed the lives of more than 300 people in the UK, including 35 in Jaywick.

“The scheme itself will obviously bring improved confidence to the community," said coastal engineer John Lindsay.

"They've experienced evacuations in the past and this will see the severe threat of flooding greatly reduced.

"There was an absolute need to do some new improvements to the defences in the area which culminated in this particular project.”

The new defences have been designed to maintain the sea views from the promenade and could be raised again in decades to come to accommodate rising sea levels and climate change.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know