Sandbags remain in place by the new sea wall in Douglas after a set of steel shutters were damaged during storms earlier this month.

The steel flood boards were meant to guard the southernmost beach access point, just south of the War Memorial, during bad weather.

But wall fixings meant to hold the shutters in place appeared to have succumbed to a battering from high waves.

The damage came during an amber weather warning for waves on December 5.

Sandbags were put in place of the steel shutters as a temporary measure ahead of a red weather warning the following week - and have remained in place ever since during the frequent spells of stormy weather.

Work was completed on Douglas seafront’s controversial new sea wall in time for this year’s VE Day commemorations at the Cenotaph on May 8.

Construction started in the summer of 2024 on the new wall, replacing the old railings along a 500m stretch of the Promenade from just south of the Douglas War Memorial on Harris Promenade to a point opposite the Empress Hotel on Central Promenade.

When the scheme was originally proposed in 2018 the cost was estimated to have been £500,000.

But the price tag rose to £900,000 - £1,800 a metre - with a dramatic increase in the costs of labour and materials being blamed.

Planning consent (19/00755/B) was approved on appeal in May 2020, having previously been refused by the planning committee.

But the consent expired in May last year, and months after construction began, the scheme had to be retrospectively - and reluctantly - approved by the planning committee.

Then acting chairman of the planning committee Peter Young said he would support the application ‘with a heavy heart’ as ‘I don’t like the damned thing.’