Deal beach will be accessible this Bank Holiday weekend, even in flood defence work isn't completed.

That is the promise from an Environment Agency spokesman, who confirmed a setback from last week, which meant no work was carried out for almost a week, has been rectified.

A machine had broken, which has now been fixed.

He said: “The broken down machine was replaced with a larger machine on Tuesday.

"It is all going well, and expected to be complete next week.

"The beach will be open for the Bank Holiday weekend.”

In response to readers concerns that work should have been done at a different time of year, the spokesman added: “Can I stress again that these works were urgent to reduce the risk of flooding, and simply could not wait.

“We have a duty to minimise the risk of flooding, and leaving the work until autumn would have been neglecting that duty.”

This comes after Jenny Domane, of Albion Road in Deal raised concerns about access to the water.

She said: “After the work done at Deal we have been left with inaccessibility to the waters edge, especially north end, for people, fishermen and let alone the poor rowers."

Nicola Handley, at Deal, Walmer, Kingsdown, Amateur Rowing Club, supported her statement.

She said: “At times it has made access rather more difficult, but we have worked with the environmental team and we realise there are problems with the beach which need attention.

"Although it is a pain, it’s something that needs doing, so we will try to work with them again until the job is completed.”