A BACUP firm will be listening to the shipping news for its latest project.

For the Pennine Group, based in New Line, has been commissioned to construct a new sea defence in Cleveleys.

But the four-man team's schedule is governed by the tides as it waits for opportunities to access the beach in order to install machinery.

Technical director Marc Evans said: "Sometimes we get a clear eight hours in which to manoeuvre our equipment on to the beach, install a number of columns and then move everything out again.

"But at other times there is only a four hour gap between the tide going out and coming back in, which makes things very tight - especially when you consider that it takes up to 30 minutes to move our equipment between the promenade and the beach."

The £200,000 project to strengthen the ground along a 150-metre section of the sea wall is part of a multi-million pound sea defence project being carried out between Blackpool and Fleetwood.

A thousand stone columns are being inserted over the seven-week project, which is expected to be finished by Christmas.