The 1.5km barrier along the eastern side of Holes Bay will safeguard more than 570 properties now and over 2,000 at risk in future from rising sea levels while supporting the town’s long-term regeneration plans.

Backed by the Environment Agency and BCP Council’s Strategic CIL fund, the scheme is being managed by South West Flood & Coastal.

Work starts this month on Zone A  – Holes Bay Path to Lifeboat Quay – raising embankments and rock revetments to 2.65m AOD.

Zone E – RNLI car park to Poole Bridge – follows in the autumn, with a 3.6m steel tubular and sheet-piled wall and flood gates.

Both sections will take around 18 months.

Knights Brown’s divisional director Mike Crook said the project has been designed to protect sensitive salt marsh and mudflat habitats with a bubble curtain to be used to contain sediment disturbance.

Once complete, the flood wall will pave the way for new waterfront routes and mixed-use developments along Poole’s shoreline.