A multi-million-pound project to protect Aberystwyth promenade against severe storms has been revealed, which Ceredigion County Council hopes will be in place by 2020.

The scheme, which could cost up to £10.9m, will see sea walls strengthened, flood defence walls heightened and new preventative walls built on the promenade as fears that the town’s seafront is increasingly at risk of severe storm damage.

The need for improvement of the coastal defences at Aberystwyth has been “investigated over the last decade”, a report into the scheme said, while the storms of winter 2013/14 caused “significant damage to the promenade and sea walls” with “the promenade itself sustaining considerable structural damage.”

“The storm of 2014 has brought into focus the need to consider improvements to the coastal defences, particularly in the context of climate change which is likely to result in an increased frequency and severity of storms as well as an increase in water levels,” the report said.

The report outlines more than 20 options from doing nothing, to maximum defences including large walls being built out to sea.

The preferred option, which is being consulted on by Ceredigion council, will feature a 0.5-metre-high staggered wall on the landward side of the promenade to help prevent flooding of seafront buildings and seawater reaching the road.

The plan will also see extensive repairs and strengthening of the sea walls, including pointing, crack filling, repairs to existing groynes, the encasement of damaged concrete walls, and slipway repairs.

An outline timeline for the project, if given the go ahead, would see it completed by Christmas 2020.

If approved, Ceredigion council would meet a 25 per cent contribution to the scheme, with the remainder met by the Welsh Government.

See this week’s south papers for more on the plans, available in shops and as a digital edition on Wednesday