CONSTRUCTION companies are set to bid to carry out a major sea defence scheme along the Clacton and Holland coastline.

Tendring Council received planning permission for the £36million scheme two weeks ago.

It will include creating 23 new fishtail groynes to safeguard the coast and prevent 400 homes crumbling into the sea over the next 20 years.

Tenders have now been sent out to five construction companies. They have to submit their bids by February 24.

It is hoped the scheme will get underway later this year.

Tendring Council’s coast protection cabinet member Nick Turner said: “We are now really getting down to the business side of this crucial project, the biggest of its type being undertaken in the UK at the current time.

“As we get to each stage in the process we are another step towards delivering this initiative which the residents of Tendring have waited for over so many years.”