Bulldozers are due to move in and demolish Happisburgh’s doomed cliff-top homes this spring as the blighted seaside village prepares for a new lease of life.

Angie Fitch-Tillett, North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) cabinet member for the coast, said the council’s final purchase of nine erosion-threatened Beach Road homes had been wrapped up just before Christmas.

She added: “We are looking to get them down in the foreseeable future. In the worst case scenario it will be a couple of months.”

The news has come as a huge relief to defiant Bryony Nierop-Reading, the sole remaining permanent resident, who refused to sell her bungalow.

She has been frustrated at the delay in demolishing her former neighbours’ homes and angry at having to call the police because of intruders in the empty properties.

Mrs Nierop-Reading, 66, claimed NNDC had failed to make them secure until contacted by the News last week.

Mrs Fitch-Tillett said time was still needed to complete legally-required asbestos and bat surveys on the properties and NNDC also had to wait until a Happisburgh landowner, who has not been identified, had submitted an application for nine replacement homes on a plot in the village.

Police confirmed that they had been alerted to two recent attempted burglaries in Beach Road.

One night last week Mrs Nierop-Reading was returning home when she heard someone tread on glass in the empty property beside hers. She headed back to the village to ring the police and said she saw someone leave the building and drive away.

“It isn’t at all pleasant. They need to get on with this demolition. They are empty, deteriorating and a security risk. It’s a bit like putting a sick animal to sleep – no-one wants to do it but you know it’s for the best,” she said.

“It will make it a bit colder up here for me, and less private, but it’s got to be done – it’s the worst of all possible worlds at the minute.”

A Midlands family have also refused to sell their two Beach Road holiday homes and the three remaining properties will leave a gap-toothed cliff-top line after demolition.

Campaigner Malcolm Kerby, of the Coastal Concern Action Group, said those who had decided to sell had received 40 to 50 per cent of their properties’ ‘no-problem’ market value out of NNDC’s £3m pot from the government’s pioneering Pathfinder scheme aimed at helping communities cope with erosion blight.

Although he believed central government should fully compensate householders for their loss, NNDC had “screwed as much out of the deal as possible for people,” based on current government policy which Mr Kerby said could be summarised as: “It’s your own fault for moving to the coast.”

He added: “What we’ve got is as good as it gets. I am very pleased with the outcome of the Pathfinder. I think when it’s complete later this year it will reset Happisburgh for the next quarter of a century in a very good way.”

Work on new Beach Road public toilets is due to begin “imminently” according to NNDC. The block will stand in a newly-built car park which replaces one nearer the cliff edge. The new facilities will be fully open at Easter and a picnic area will be ready soon afterwards.

Story by Alex Hurrell in the Eastern Daily Press

Human rights will be breached if Great Yarmouth Borough Council fails to protect more than a dozen cliff-top homes and businesses from the ocean.

That is the view of Brian Hardisty whose Hopton home will be engulfed with 14 houses and two holiday companies if the Kelling to Lowestoft Ness Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) is approved.

His warning comes after plans revealed sea defences at Yarmouth and Gorleston would be maintained, while parts of Hopton would be allowed to fall into the sea.

It is a recommendation he believes breaches Article 14 (discrimination) of the Human Rights Act 1998.

The plans will see five seafront properties, Bourne Leisure and the Potters Leisure resort lost to the sea by 2055. Meanwhile, 15 properties will be lost by 2105.

But the borough council has made clear that nothing has been decided yet.

Mr Hardisty, 55, a Hopton parish councillor and chairman of Hopton Costal Action Group, said: “If they are going to hold the line in Gorleston, then why not in Hopton? It’s discrimination.

“If I had the financial backing then I would take the council to European Court of Human Rights for breaching the Article 14 (discrimination) of the Human Rights Act.

“The sea defences will be allowed to fail at Hopton because it is not financially viable to do anything about it. Yet, Hopton brings in revenue of £10m to the local economy each year, plus 1,000 jobs from holiday resorts.”

“That is reason enough to save it from going into the sea. The businesses and the properties of this village deserve a policy of hold the line and nothing else will do.”

The recommendations for Hopton is to allow the coast to retreat through a policy of managed realignment once the sea defences fail.

But during a Hopton Parish Council meeting on Monday night, council representatives and a coastal experts revealed the policy would be investigated through a £250,000 strategic review funded by DEFRA and the Environment Agency.

The 18-month strategy review will identify a programme of work to be carried out along the coastline as well as taking into account compensation for people who lose their homes.

Meanwhile, criticisms were aimed at Paul Patterson of Costal and Land Drainage Team during the meeting after claims erosion predictions had failed to identify the speed of Hopton’s erosion.

He said: “You mention the errors on erosion, but it is an estimate. There are so many things which can influence the speed of erosion. It was the best effort we could make but sometimes that is wrong. It is a clear example of the uncertainty we can face.

“We are not here to give you something to run kicking and screaming away from.

“I would like us to come together as a team to try and solve the problem of costal management.”

The Kelling to Lowestoft Ness Shoreline Management Plan is expected to go before the borough council in the near future.

Leader of the borough council, Steve Ames, said: “In order to attain approval for, or bid for funding to preserve the current coastal defences or to build more defences, we have to have an agreed Shoreline Management Plan in place.

“The plan does not dictate the strategy we are to specifically take for respective areas.

“That is to be done through the next phase of the Coastal Strategy review – which we are to produce in partnership with Waveney District Council.”

“It is the strategy that would take any decision around adapting to coastal change. No decisions have been take therefore – as the review of the Strategy has not been completed.

The results of HM Walligford study funded by Bourne Leisure, based in Hopton, into the impact of Yarmouth’s Outer Harbour on Hopton Beach is to revealed in the new year.

Story by Ben Woods in the Eastern Daily Press

A planned “buy to lease” scheme aimed at helping seaside homeowners and communities threatened by erosion is being dropped by a coastal council.

But officials in North Norfolk are looking at other options and a campaigner says there are better ways of boosting blighted communities.

Buy to Lease was being investigated as a way of an authority purchasing properties in danger of being lost to erosion between 2025 and 2050 – and leasing them back to the owners or someone else.

It would give the householders more security and scope to decide their future and remove the wider blight caused by lack of investment in doomed properties.

But officials have now say the council should not proceed with the scheme because of a raft of problems including that the long term risks and liabilities were too great.

Council cabinet member for coastal issues Angie Fitch-Tillett said Buy to Lease was one of the options to help householders. It could work in areas not affected by erosion but the certainty of loss meant properties had not been maintained and were not up the standards needed by a social landlord such as a housing association.

“We are not a social landlord, we would not get a return and the homes are not up to standard,” she explained.

The £170,000 budget for Buy to Lease meant it would only be able to used on one or two properties.

It would be disappointing for the owners affected but the council would be looking at other options said Mrs Fitch _Tillett, who has recently been made the lead on coastal erosion in the national special interest group of the Local Government Association.

Other schemes helping coastal communities adapt to erosion issues were pressing ahead, she stressed.

Coastal campaigner Malcolm Kerby said Buy to Lease was not an option he personally favoured. He preferred a different approach – property value underwriting – which is among the council’s alternatives.

Ever since 2004 he has called on the government to underwrite properties affected by the abandonment or removal of existing sea defences.

“Our island has been eroding for millennia. Our first priority must be to defend. We need a 21st century solution – a socially just alternative. Where the private sector fears to tread the angel of government should walk,” he added.

Ministry officials fought shy of the underwriting idea because they feared it was writing a blank cheque.

But with only around 250 properties affected nationwide the multi-million bill was still much smaller than other government spending such as fighting wars in Afghanistan, added Mr Kerby.

There is positive news with other initiatives under the Pathfinder scheme, which saw £3m of a £11m national pot given to North Norfolk to tackle issues arising from coastal erosion.

Ninety businesses have been helped under a business support scheme stretching from Cromer to Happisburgh.

And now the council is moving towards providing more grants and loans to help ventures needing to adapt to their coastal circumstances but struggling to get help through private finance.

Story by Richard Batson in the Eastern Daily Press

The last resident of Happisburgh’s doomed Beach Road says she has no regrets about her decision to stay until the sea finally forces her out of her cliff-top bungalow.

Bryony Nierop-Reading has only her cats, stunning sea views and nearby sand martins for company after declining to join neighbours who have sold up to North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) and moved away from the fast-eroding coastline.

Mrs Nierop-Reading, 66, says she loves living just 45ft from the cliff edge where she can enjoy the sea in all its moods – but she is “seriously worried” that NNDC has a “sub-agenda” to remove or rearrange existing sea defences, allowing wave action to erode the Beach Road coastline unchecked.

Beach clearance and demolition of the vacant homes around Mrs Nierop-Reading, is due to begin shortly as the council seeks to landscape the blighted area for public recreational use.

“I can understand that these houses are a bit of an embarrassment because they are a permanent reminder to people of what we are letting the sea take,” she said. “My big worry is that there is therefore a sub-agenda to get rid of this corner of the coastline.”

Mrs Nierop-Reading felt she could not morally accept NNDC’s offer of government Pathfinder cash because, unlike her neighbours, she had known when she bought her home in 2008 that sea defences would not be maintained.

“I love the open space and the light. I would find it depressing to be confined,” she said. “I can practise my musical instruments as loudly as I like.” But she misses lights in neighbouring homes at night, and the knowledge that if she’s ill, someone will call with a pint of milk.

She claims that when she recently asked BT for a landline telephone, the company said NNDC had asked them to remove all the telegraph poles as no-one lived in the road any longer.

An NNDC spokesman said they would be happy for the poles to be retained as necessary. The removal of redundant beach defences was supported by the local community. All the rocks would be staying but some would be slightly realigned to make them more effective.

He added: “We have always respected Ms Neirop-Reading’s wish to remain and have worked hard to ensure that her interests are carefully protected throughout the implementation of the Pathfinder projects.”

Story by Alex Hurrell in the Eastern Daily Press

The final resident living on the crumbling seafront of a Norfolk village has said she will remain defiant despite her last set of neighbours moving out.

Bryony Nierop-Reading, whose house perches just metres from the cliff edge on Beach Road, Happisburgh, said she would stay until given no other option.

The 65-year-old turned down compensation to move inland last year.

“It’s more powerful to argue for something if you are on the spot,” said Mrs Nierop-Reading.

“Also it’s nearly everybody’s dream to live by the sea.”

Mrs Nierop-Reading lived three miles (4.8km) inland in Witton until she moved to her “cultural hub” of Happisburgh in 2008, despite the dangers of living so close to the sea.

“Occasionally it makes one panic stricken,” she said. “But most of the time I feel extremely safe here.

“Every morning I go to the French windows and open them and listen to the sea. The view is incredible.”

Compensation deal

Her last neighbours – the Gilbert family from Nottinghamshire – said farewell to their holiday home during Easter 2011 after accepting a compensation deal offered to them by North Norfolk District Council’s Coastal Pathfinder project.

Ten out of 13 homeowners on Beach Road accepted a share of £726,000 compensation this month out of a pot of £3m earmarked to help the cliff-top residents.

David and Jill Gilbert were sad to see their property, which they purchased in 1976, slowly lose its battle with the sea.

“We’ve had honeymoons down here, weddings, 80th birthday parties, 21st parties and big family get-togethers,” said Mrs Gilbert.

Mr Gilbert added: “It’s been really sad. About eight years ago [the cliff] went very quickly and we thought ‘that’s it’, but we’ve hung on over the last few years.”

Other owners on the road to move out this year include Diana Wrightson, who with her business partner Jill Morris ran a guest house and tea garden for 26 years at Cliff House.

She accepted compensation worth 40% of what her house would have been worth if it was not at risk from coastal erosion.

“It’s very sad to see it happen and what makes it more sad is that it was absolutely unnecessary to allow it to get to this stage,” said Happisburgh resident Malcolm Kerby from the Coastal Concern Action Group (CCAG), which was set up to help the community fight against the onset of the sea.

Beloved home

Mrs Nierop-Reading knows that one day she will also have to move from her beloved home and feels sympathy for the Gilberts, who became the last family on Beach Road to abandon their house.

“I must say if I’d have been perched where they are I think I would have done the same thing – they don’t have much alternative,” said the grandmother of six.

“For all the people who’d been here for a long, long time… they moved here when the council had promised to keep the sea defences up and they have ended up taking Pathfinder money, but they’ve also got a sense of betrayal.

“I came here knowing it would go eventually and so I’m in a very different position to them. Thankfully I wasn’t offered enough money to tempt me.”

There are currently no funds set aside to maintain or improve the aging sea defences at Happisburgh, but a scheme is in place to move the cliff-top car park and possibly build a new shop and toilet block in the village.

“The NN Pathfinder has been applauded by local people as well as government officials and we are pleased that we have been able to undertake a number of successful projects,” said Peter Battrick from North Norfolk District Council.

“But there is a specific amount of money for a specific set of projects,” he added.

The council is set to demolish the vacant Beach Road properties in the summer.

Story on the BBC News website

Listen to the Gilbert family talking to BBC Radio Norfolk

Homeowners in Happisburgh whose houses are perched on the cliff-top and at risk of falling into the sea because of coastal erosion have started the process of moving out and moving on.

In Happisburgh work has been taking place as part of North Norfolk District Council’s Coastal Pathfinder project with the striking of deal to compensate those whose homes are perched on the edge of Happisburgh’s crumbling cliff in Beach Road.

The council was awarded £3m in 2009 from the government’s pathfinder programme, which ends this autumn, to explore ways of helping coastal communities plan and adapt to coastal change.

And now the homeowners who have accepted deals, are starting to move out from the village.

One of those is Di Wrightson and her business partner, Jill Morris, whose home, Cliff House, is metres from the cliff edge.

The two, who ran a guest house and tea garden for 26 years until forced to close five years ago because their home’s position made investment in improvements uneconomic, are currently in the process of moving into their new home in Northrepps.

They are also helping out at a new tea shop The Blue Willow Tea Rooms in Hamilton Road, Cromer, which opened on Monday, April 18 and is owned by Ms Morris’s son James, 43, and his wife, Max, 45.

It is a turn around as James often used to help out when he was a teenager at the Cliff House tea rooms.

Ms Wrightson said: “The hope was always that when we retired James would take over the business in Happisburgh but that was not meant to be. So he has bought the café here and we are helping out.

“It has been a very stressful time, especially with helping at the café as well, it has all come together at the same time, trying to move out of our Happisburgh home and into our new one.”

But she said although there was sadness at leaving Happisburgh, the move and work at the new café was keeping them motivated.

She said: “It has given us a bit of hope, it is something to look forward to. This is a real opportunity with a lot of possibilities for us. We also love what we do, meeting people and the different customers.”

She would not reveal exactly how much they had been offered for their home, but said it was around 45pc of what it would have been if the house was not in a ‘problem’ area.

She also said she aims to keep up contact with Happisburgh, retaining her role as chairman of the Friends of Happisburgh Lighthouse and said she would also be paying frequent visits to the village.

Speaking about the pathfinder project she said it had “not done enough”. She pointed to the Happisburgh based Coastal Concern Action Group’s campaign for 100pc compensation, and said although they were happy to have been awarded something, there should have been full compensation for the homeowners.

Jane Archer and Chris Cutting’s Happisburgh Beach Road bungalow was infamously valued at just £1 in 2008 when they tried to use it as collateral for a loan. Mr Cutting said they expect to move out in the summer, after 23 years spent raising three children in their home.

In total 13 home owners on Beach Road were made offers, 10 have now accepted the offers, with two owners declining offers. A spokesman for North Norfolk District Council said there are now no more offers or negotiations outstanding. The conclusion of the deal means the council is handing over just over £726,000 to help the at-risk householders from the £3m pot of national pathfinder cash.

A spokesman from North Norfolk District Council said following demolition and clearance of the homes, which is expected to happen in the summer, the land will be incorporated into a landscaping scheme for the area which will complement a new car park. The scheme will be developed in consultation with the Happisburgh Local Liaison Group and Happisburgh Parish Council and will be paid for from pathfinder funds.

Malcolm Kerby, a leading campaigner with the Coastal Concern Action Group, said: “The pathfinder project has been a stepping stone, but it is by no means the end, it is only part of a process of delivering a much better system of managing our coastline.”

Story by Tracey Gray in the Eastern Daily Press

More funding is needed if trailblazing work protecting the coastline is to continue and be rolled out across the country was the message from a two-day conference looking at how successful projects around the coastline in North Norfolk have been.

Leading figures from the Environment Agency and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who have a say on coastal policies and flooding, are in North Norfolk this week looking at the work which has taken place as part of North Norfolk District Council’s Coastal Pathfinder projects.

The council was awarded £3m in 2009 from the government’s pathfinder programme to explore ways of helping coastal communities plan and adapt to coastal change.

Pathfinder projects so far have included the striking of deal to compensate those whose homes are perched on the edge of Happisburgh’s crumbling cliff.

On Monday the delegates visited the various pathfinder sites, including the cliff tops at Happisburgh, to view the properties on Beach Road at risk of falling into the sea because of coastal erosion.

They were also informed of pathfinder funded plans to move Happisburgh’s car park from Beach Road to another cliff top site to the east, and create a toilet block, and a shop or kiosk, and also clear debris off the beach.

Clive Stockton, NNDC cabinet member for coastal strategy, said: “The whole idea of these two days is that we spread the word about the pathfinder projects we have implemented and use that to lobby for the pathfinder programme to be continued with further funding.

“We want the government to see there has been a real value in it, so we are going to lobby that point and also lobby for pathfinder to be made a national policy.”

The delegates also visited other pathfinder funded projects including the re-opening of The Marrams footpath, a vital link between Cromer’s Runton Road car park and the Melbourne beach access slope, which was closed in January 2007 following a cliff slip. The path has been successfully re-routed and is now safe to use.

Ian Bliss from the Environment Agency said: “What this has shown is how really effective the partnership has been between the district council and engaging with the community.”

Speaking about if lessons could be learned for other places facing coastal erosion he said each place had to be looked at on a “case by case” basis.

Peter Moore, environment policy group manager at Dorset County Council, which has been awarded £376,000 in pathfinder money, said: “We are looking to learn lessons from North Norfolk and have been inspired by what we have seen, particularly in terms of the beach debris clearing and the work looking at moving the caravan park in Happisburgh to another location.

“The aim of all of this is to get people interested in coastal change who have not been interested before and also hopefully get further funding for the pathfinder programme.”

Today the delegates will attend a series of talks and will discuss the merits or otherwise of the various projects, particularly looking at how the successes may influence government coastal policy in the future.

On Monday, the district council’s cabinet also agreed to support the scheme to relocate the coastal village’s Beach Road car park and transfer ownership and management of the car park, and new public toilets which will be built in it, to Happisburgh Parish Council.

They also supported plans to replace the nine cliff-edge homes on Beach Road, soon to be demolished, and to give officers authority to agree terms on a suitable village site or sites for the replacements which would be built on about 0.8 of an acre of farmland.

Story by Tracey Gray in the Eastern Daily Press

Two projects crucial to the revitalisation of erosion-blighted Happisburgh will take another step nearer realisation tomorrow.

Schemes to relocate the coastal village’s Beach Road car park and to replace nine cliff-edge homes, soon to be demolished, are due to come before North Norfolk District Council’s cabinet tomorrow morning.

Councillors are being recommended to support the transfer of ownership and management of the car park, and new public toilets which will be built in it, to Happisburgh Parish Council.

The parish council supports the move, which would see it benefit from car-park income. The project, which would include a new beach access ramp to replace one destroyed by coastal erosion, is expected to get planning approval early next month and should be built in time for the summer season.

The cabinet is also recommended to back the principle of replacing the Beach Road homes – bought for demolition by NNDC using government Pathfinder cash, aimed at helping coastal communities manage erosion – and to give officers authority to agree terms on a suitable village site or sites for the replacements which would be built on about 0.8 of an acre of farmland.

The council would like to consult on draft proposals for the scheme in May and hopes to gain outline planning permission for it in July or August.

Story by Alex Hurrell in the North Norfolk News

Owners of a north Norfolk holiday park perched above the sea have spent £190,000 of their own money shoring up the crumbling cliff to save their business.

Richard and Anna Hollis have bought 1,750 tonnes of armoured rock, which has been heaped around steel sheet pilings at the base of the eroding cliff that supports their Castaways Holiday Park in Bacton.

Experts had told the couple they would lose their cliff-edge caravans this year and, when their attempts to get help with funding failed, Mr and Mrs Hollis decided to go it alone.

The couple now join two other ‘King Canute’ East Anglians who have taken a DIY approach to tackling North Sea coastal erosion.

Since 2002, retired engineer Peter Boggis has kept the waves at bay from his Easton Bavents home, near Southwold, with the help of 250,000 tonnes of clay, which he has paid to have piled in front of eroding cliffs.

And last month brought news of pensioner Michael Kennedy, who has been throwing stones and boulders against Hunstanton cliff for two hours each day, six days a week, for the past 14 years, in a one-man bid to create a tidal barrier and protect it from erosion.

Mrs Hollis, 36, said: “We didn’t have a choice. It was do or die for our holiday park.” The couple, who have a daughter Katie, five, and son Thomas, two, hope their action has stalled their erosion nightmare for another 15-25 years.

“It’s been giving us a lot of sleepless nights,” said Mr Hollis, 39. “I was hoping to leave something to my children if they want to follow in the same path. We have invested a lot of money in this place.”

Half the cost of the defence work came from the couple’s savings. Mr Hollis said they had not been able to find anyone prepared to put a value on Castaways before the work was done, because of the erosion threat, and his bank had, therefore, refused to give them a loan for the balance. In the end, they had secured one with another high street lender under the government’s loan guarantee scheme, which allows small businesses to borrow without assets as security.

The Midlands couple moved from their native Tamworth seven years ago to live Mr Hollis’ boyhood dream of owning a holiday park and bought Castaways, which includes a clubhouse, seven apartments, 35 caravans and three pine lodges.

They say steel sheet pilings were in good condition at the foot of the cliff and a desktop survey conducted before their purchase did not mention coastal erosion. The couple claim that there were no problems until 2006-2007 when work began on a new under-sea pipeline at the neighbouring Bacton Gas site.

Mr and Mrs Hollis say the beach level then began to drop and the steel pilings collapsed, undermining the cliff. They estimate that about four metres of clifftop has also since disappeared.

The couple have been involved in a long correspondence, and held many meetings, with representatives from several companies based at the site, and with North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) officials, but say their grievances have not yet been resolved.

Mr Hollis added: “These are hard times and we’ve now got a loan which we will have to pay off. I want to make sure that people realise we have paid for these sea defences ourselves. We have had to – to protect and keep our site.”

No one from North Norfolk District Council was available to comment last night.

Story by Alex Hurrell in the Eastern Daily Press

Every resident in West Norfolk could be charged for maintaining sea defences to secure the future of the area’s coastline.

A new report outlines different ways of paying for defences between Wolferton Creek and Hunstanton.

Councillors will discuss the North Norfolk Coastal Change Pathfinder Programme document tomorrow.

It warns future funding for defences faces “considerable uncertainty” and other sources of income need to be identified.

If government funding disappears then up to £800,000 a year may need to be raised through local contributions just to maintain and repair defences.An Environment Agency spokesman said alternative methods of funding were continually being looked at as national funding became more limited. “We are trying to involve community groups and local groups. More and more it will be money from different pots,” she said.

Options suggested in the report include a contribution from everyone in the borough, which could be doubled for those living five metres below sea level – which would include large parts of The Fens.

Businesses and land-owners would also contribute – with bills ranging from £810 for those owning more than 100ha (247 acres) of farmed land in a parish directly affected, to £220 per £1,000 of payable business rates for companies in affected parishes.

If every parish in the borough contributed, the cost could be £2 on the average Band D Council Tax bill using current figures. If the sea level differential was imposed then the rates could be £2 and £4 respectively. If the cost was only split between the parishes involved (Hunstanton, Heacham, Snettisham, Dersingham and Ingoldisthorpe) then it would be a £10 rise.

Brian Long, portfolio holder for environment at West Norfolk Council, said consultation carried out in the coastal area had seen positive feedback from businesses and individuals when it comes to protecting the coast.

“These are just suggestive figures and assume no contribution whatsoever from anywhere else. We have had positive feedback from all the stakeholders involved.

“It is a two-fold issue as firstly there are those who directly benefit from the defences, including business and residents, and then there is the wider benefit in terms of how much the area puts into the local economy. It is a long-term view and the figures are just indicative.

“We all benefit in the wider sense because it is a beautiful piece of coast with important wildlife habitats,” he said.

Pam Hardy, chairman of Terrington St John Parish Council, 23 miles from Hunstanton, said the threat from the sea could not be under-estimated.

“It is only my personal opinion – and I’m not in favour of paying more – but it has to be protected and you can’t expect the people of the Hunstanton area to pay for it all,” she said.

The report suggests that businesses would pay the greatest total – 76pc, of the bill – with residents paying 14pc, landowners 7pc and utilities 3pc.

Future funding for the defences was outlined in the Shore Management Plan (2) which is a government policy document on the future of our coastlines. It said a “joint approach” to funding would have to be investigated as future bills may have to be met from a combination of sources – including local funding.

In 2009 Defra announced 15 authorities who would receive financial support to investigate the issue with North Norfolk Distric Council and its partners, including West Norfolk Council, securing cash.

“The frontage has been chosen because there is considerable uncertainty over the potential for future funding of sea defences and tidal flooding could have significant impacts for businesses and residential properties,” said the report, due to go before West Norfolk Council’s regeneration and environment committee tomorrow.

The project is being managed by Risk & Policy Analysis, based in Loddon, which is due to make its presentation to the meeting. The company has been aksed to lead the project and has compiled a report on an “equitable mechanism for securing contrubutions.”

Story by Donna Semmens in the Eastern Daily Press