A SECTION of Dawlish beach will not be open for the first weekend of the school holidays because rail resilience works have not yet been completed.

The beach and sea wall at Marine Parade was due to be made accessible again tomorrow (Friday, July 24).

But Network Rail announced this week that the opening date has had to be pushed back. It is now set for Tuesday, July 28.

A spokesman for the organisation confirmed that the delay is because the final stages of concreting have not yet been finished.

But the footbridge at Boat Cove will reopen tomorrow as planned, providing access to Coryton Cove.

Mike Gallop, route director for Network Rail, issued an apology for the delay. He said: ‘We are sorry that Dawlish beach and promenade at Marine Parade will not reopen, as we previously committed to, on Friday, July 24.

‘This is because we have not completed the final concreting and can’t remove the heavy machinery and site compound so we can make the beach and promenade safe for the public.

‘We know this is not acceptable, particularly as it’s the first weekend in the school holidays. We committed to reopening the beach and promenade in time for this weekend and we haven’t met that promise.

‘We have looked to see if there is any way to reopen a part of the beach for this weekend, but this can’t be done safely and it is a risk we cannot take.

‘We will be working with our contractors, BAM Nuttall, to finish the final concreting, remove all the machinery and site compound so that the promenade and beach can be safely reopened by the morning of Tuesday, July 28, if not before.

We’ve started an immediate review to understand why we failed to reopen on time. We will share this with Teignbridge District Council and the measures we will be putting in place to stop this happening again.’

Updates can be found on the South West Rail Resilience Programme Twitter page @southwestrrp.