THE Bournemouth Beach replenishment works will eventually leave a top layer of the finest sand, council chiefs have confirmed.

Concerns have been raised that the ongoing £3.6m replenishment scheme, which is part of a wider £50m project, has left sections of the beach at Southbourne full of gravel.

Resident Chris Wragg took before and after footage of the beach near Gordon's Zig Zag, which he says shows much more grit, stones and gravel in it.

However, Bournemouth Borough Council engineering and contracts manager Anthony Kirby explained: "After the new material has been placed on the beach by established pumping techniques, the material will be sorted by wave action, which will naturally segregate the sand from the gravels. The natural action of the wind will form a top layer of the finest sand."

Mr Wragg told the Daily Echo a number of Southbourne residents had expressed concern about the quality of the new material. He said: "The process has transformed a beach once renowned for its soft, fine grained sand into a gritty, shingle beach.

"Local residents are angry that no mention was made of this marked change in the quality of the beach. In fact information on the council website gives a guarantee of sand with 'a similar particle size to the existing beach'.

"I'm just concerned the council is ploughing ahead and before long it will not be possible to do anything about it."

Allaying residents fears, Mr Kirby explained the material being used is locally sourced and tested natural bimodal sediment of sand and gravel, which matches the grading of sand on the native beach.

"This year's beach replenishment works, delivered as part of the overall works undertaken in the first year of the Bournemouth Beach Management project, have been targeted at three specific locations where the beach fill is at a critical level to maintain effective coast protection against erosion of the cliffs," added Mr Kirby.

Meanwhile, speaking from the beach, Southbourne resident John Duffy said: "Over the past year the beach seems to contain a lot more gravel, but I'm not sure this is down to the replenishment work.

"A lot of the stones you see on this section of beach now were here last autumn, way before anyone was working here."

The work, which started last autumn, includes the replacement of groynes and thousands of tonnes of sand pumped onto the beach. It started between Bournemouth and Boscombe pier and has steadily moved eastwards.

Large sections of the beach have been fenced off while specialist equipment pumps 320,000 cubic metres of sand ashore.

This major £3.6m project was planned to help protect the coastline from further erosion. It is part of a wider 17-year work programme, costing £50m, which will ultimately see the replacement of all 53 groynes along the beach.