A successful multi million pound bid to solve major coastal problems in Norfolk and Suffolk was hailed by experts and campaigners last night as the most important step ever taken in the management of the coast.

And as three local authorities – North Norfolk, Waveney and Great Yarmouth – celebrated winning nearly £5m out of a national pot of £11m to address a range of challenges, officials in charge of managing the coast said the money would help individuals about to lose their homes to erosion, the two counties as a whole and also build future policies for the rest of the country in the face of climate change.

A small number of people teetering on the very edges of some cliff tops, including in the now internationally known erosion hotspot of Happisburgh, were for the first time guaranteed payments for the loss of their homes where they had previously faced walking away with nothing.

But although those compensatory payments are set to grab many of the headlines, those behind the successful bids stressed this element was only one part of a wider policy-influencing mandate which the government has handed to Norfolk and Suffolk along with the money.

North Norfolk has been given £3m, Waveney £1.5m and Great Yarmouth £296,500. After North Norfolk and Waveney, the largest handout was East Riding, where £1.2m was made available.

The weighting of the North Norfolk bid has been interpreted as demonstrating how council officials, politicians and campaigners from the district have led the way in the battle against erosion, its impacts and the government’s attitude to the coast.

All 15 councils around the country which won money will now be referred to as ‘pathfinders’ and they will have 18 months to spend the money on a range of schemes, while feeding back the lessons they learn so government can look further into the future.

Last night, leading campaigner and the coordinator of the Happisburgh based Coastal Concern Action Group (CCAG), Malcolm Kerby said: “This is ground breaking. For the first time ever we have genuine recognition from central government that these problems exist.

“And for the first time the local authorities will be able to properly manage the coast and the consequences of change along that coast.

“It quite simply is the most important step ever taken in the management of our coastline.”

One of the homeowners set to be offered a financial package for her home where previously she thought she would lose everything is Di Wrightson, who lives on Beach Road in Happisburgh.

“After many years of anxiety and stress, watching the storm clouds gather and imagining the difficulties ahead, I suddenly feel as if I have stepped into sunlight,” she said.

North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said: “This is an enormous achievement, something which we have collectively fought for in north Norfolk across many years.

“It is the first recognition that there is a need for social justice on this matter.

“The scale of this breakthrough cannot be underestimated, although it is by no means the end point.”

Peter Frew, head of coastal strategy at North Norfolk District Council, said: “I have been working here on the coast since 1992 and in terms of coast management this is the biggest thing that has happened in that time.”

Welcoming the smallest of the three bids, which will be spent on a project for the village of Scratby, Great Yarmouth MP Tony Wright said: “By taking part in this programme we can help to formulate effective future policy on this important issue.

“The £300,000 will test different approaches to adapt to coastal erosion and change, such as roll-back and business support programmes.”

A Defra spokesman said: “The pathfinders will road-test new and innovative approaches to planning for and managing change.”

The money will go towards a number of central themes, including:

Buying a small number of cliff top homes immediately at threat, then demolishing them.

Offering a ‘purchase and lease back’ option to owners of another raft of homes not so immediately vulnerable.

Tidying up parts of the cliff top which have become derelict because of erosion.

Business investment retention on the coast and relocation of threatened businesses such as the caravan and camping park at Happisburgh.

Retention or replacement of vulnerable infrastructure, such as the cliff top footpath at Cromer’s western end, the village hall at Trimingham, the now destroyed beach ramp at Happisburgh and the car park at Salthouse.

Finding new ways of funding coastal defences, for example private contributions towards the costs of defence along Wolferton Creek, South Hunstanton frontage. Although this is in the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk area, it is tied into the North Norfolk bid.

Story by Ed Foss in the Eastern Daily Press

How the Yarmouth and Waveney areas could benefit

WAVENEY

The Waveney £1.5m will see work undertaken with communities at Corton and Easton Bavents to explore and deliver practical solutions to the impacts of Suffolk’s ever-changing coastline.

The bid is the second largest in the country after North Norfolk.

Council officials said work would commence immediately on exploring new ways of adapting to coastal change.

They added that, working in partnership with the two identified communities, the project would road-test innovative approaches to planning for and managing change.

Two projects will run at Corton. The first will look at developing the amenity level and accessibility of the beach and enhancing facilities, effectively handing the beach back to the community.

The second will see work commence with the people and businesses of Corton to find a long-term solution to the issue of coastal erosion and its impact on the village over the next 20 to 50 years. The aim is to ensure Corton continues to remain a secure and viable community.

Work at Easton Bavents will focus on long-term planning solutions for those living in vulnerable areas. It will approach the issue of coastal erosion from a planning perspective, looking at adapting policies, possible relocations and the impact on Easton Bavents and its surrounding communities.

Easton Bavents has become particularly well known because of the activities of resident Peter Boggis in building his own sea defences – and the legal complications which have arisen from those actions.

Ken Sale, Waveney District Council’s portfolio holder for environment, said: “We are delighted that we have received funding for this important programme of work.

“Our communities are facing the reality of coastal change and we need to gain a greater understanding of the implications for the future.

“We hope that these projects and the learning we share with our pathfinder colleagues help us find strong, long-term solutions to this issue and help secure a prosperous future for those communities on the front line.”

GREATYARMOUTH

The borough council will receive almost £300,000 for a joint project in conjunction with the Scratby Coastal Erosion Group.

The success was welcomed by Great Yarmouth MP Tony Wright: “I am pleased that Great Yarmouth has been selected in conjunction with Scratby to participate in the pathfinder programme.

“I have always campaigned on behalf of those people affected by coastal erosion and by taking part in this programme we can help to formulate effective future policy on this important issue.

“The £300,000 will test different approaches to adapt to coastal erosion and change, such as roll-back and business support programmes, and I look forward to continuing to work with the Scratby Coastal Erosion Group and the borough council on this project.”

At last, ‘joined up’ coastal management

Life changed in Happisburgh yesterday.

The village – a calm, pretty outpost of Norfolk which has become an international icon in the battle to address the impacts of coastal erosion, climate change and an emerging Whitehall-driven policy of managed retreat – was abuzz, albeit rather gently, with the news that their local authority had been awarded £3m to tackle coastal challenges.

Part of that money – and this would have been a quite staggering concept just a few months ago – will be used to buy the half a dozen most at risk homes and allow people to walk away with far more than what they thought they would receive – which was, until yesterday, nothing.

Another chunk will be put towards a “buy and lease back” scheme for a group of slightly less at risk homes, again an idea which few people saw coming until very recently.

This is a community with strength of character, no little patience, a beautiful beach, an eye-catching sentinel church, charming candy- striped lighthouse and relatively small but charismatic businesses – a wet fish shop, pub, general store and caravan site.

But Happisburgh, along with other communities in Norfolk, Suffolk and around the country, has been blighted by the spectre of coastal erosion.

Not purely blighted by name, but also by a suffering property market. Houses still sell here, but often for less than they would if they were elsewhere, away from both the erosion itself and the perception of how serious that erosion is.

The hope is that the dual purchasing schemes, alongside other parts of the project such as helping businesses move backwards physically on to new land as the cliff crumbles before them and tidying up areas which have become eyesores because of erosion, will breathe new life into such communities as Happisburgh, restore confidence and allow the property market to find a new level.

That market level may never be the same as it would be for an inland village, but the key point is that it should allow a community which feels it was once led to believe it would have sea defences for perpetuity to spread the cost of losing those defences over more than one unfortunate generation – which for so long appeared to be the current one.

Clive Stockton, who holds the coastal portfolio at North Norfolk District Council as well as running the Hill House pub in Happisburgh, explained: “To date we have had an all or nothing situation, where we applied for government funding for coastal defences for an area or a community and if successful it was all well and good.

“But more and more there were cases of defences being turned down – and that was effectively the end of the story, with communities left to their own devices.

“This is all about addressing the consequences of not defending and coming up with mechanisms to deal with the reality people are left with if funding for defences is not forthcoming.

“This is the first time that has happened.

“With new options, a lot of the blight and the problems which come with not giving a community a future can be removed.

“This is not about backing away from building sea defences; it is about producing a management scheme where there are alternatives.”

The full public explanation of what this project is and how it will work in practice is going to take some time because it is both detailed and unprecedented, but steps are expected to be taken quickly and the emotional impact has been immediate.

Di Wrightson has become something of an accidental Happisburgh celebrity and not only because she used to run a thriving village tearoom. She lives in a pair of houses on Beach Road which will, quite probably within a few months, be demolished and a payment made under the pathfinder project so she can look forward to buying another home.

She said: “The Beach Road residents can now breathe a sigh of relief, but there is still a need for every coastal community to feel properly protected against the uncertainties of erosion and climate change.

“My personal response to this announcement is one of joy and elation that, after many years of anxiety and stress, watching the storm clouds gather and imagining the difficulties ahead, I suddenly feel as if I had stepped into sunlight.

“Please don’t pinch me – I might wake up and find it’s all a beautiful dream!”

Her near neighbour Jane Archer, a founder member of the Coastal Concern Action Group who was infamously told her home was worth £1 last year when applying to borrow against it, looks set to fall into the “buy and lease back” category.

“If this were to happen – and we really don’t know the detail yet – the value of the house would change from nothing to something,” she said.

“It’s just that we don’t know what that something is yet. And we also don’t know the terms of any lease back.

“But we now have some hope we will end up with something, where we previously did not.”

There are many unknowns at this stage. By no means is this a solution to a hugely complicated topic and these projects must be seen as they are: pilots designed to inform and educate.

The pessimist would point out that these purchases may be one-offs and the government may never agree to carry such a policy through to a fully fledged version.

The pessimist might also suggest this is a sop to calm a troublesome bunch of East Anglian campaigners in the short term. That would be a mistake on the part of government. There is now so much knowledge of this subject both in Happisburgh and at North Norfolk District Council’s headquarters in Cromer that it would be unwise to believe the problem will go away with no long-term attempts at a solution.

And it is vitally important to point out that this is not just about Happisburgh, but many other parts of north and west Norfolk, the village of Scratby near Great Yarmouth and also Waveney.

But Happisburgh, and particularly Beach Road, will undoubtedly retain the glare of the media spotlight and it will be fascinating to watch the next few months pass by.