WITH VIDEO: This is the moment that beachgoers saw the dramatic management of sea defences in action.

This impressive machine is helping to restore the beach at Eastbourne, which is naturally being removed by long shore drift.

This video and the pictures above were taken by Terry Purcell. 

To counter this the Environment Agency and local authorities are resorting to topping up beaches to ensure an extra buffer from the kind of waves that rocked the county’s beaches in January.

The work by Pevensey Coastal Defence Ltd sees layers of sand and gravel sucked from the seabed by the dredger Sospan Dau and delivered to the beach over high tide.

The dredger comes very close to the beach and discharges a mixture of sediment and water using a technique known as rainbowing, which creates a mound of material high on the shore.