People living in a coastal village are “desperate” for help before their homes crumble into the sea and they lose any legal right to relocation.

Two homes in Easton Bavents, north of Southwold, are just 6m from the cliff edge and the owners fear they are in likely danger of succumbing to the sea.

Last year, £1.5m of state funding was allocated to Waveney District Council to explore the options available to communities at risk from erosion and potentially relocate them, as part of the Pathfinder scheme.

But a decision could be too late for the homes closest to the edge and those living in them want Waveney to support their quest to relocate now.

Paul England, whose son owns one of the homes on the edge of the cliff, said that if the properties were lost to the sea before a decision was made, the owners would lose their residential land use rights and no longer be eligible for relocation. (more…)

A £1.5million project to help protect the Suffolk coast against the threat of erosion was last night branded a “talking shop” that will not provide the immediate action desperately needed.

The Suffolk Coastal Change Pathfinder Project has been set up with government funding to help villagers in Corton, near Lowestoft, and Easton Bavents, near Southwold, look at ways to adapt to the changing shoreline.

But last night campaigners said it did not go far enough to provide the practical solutions that were needed. (more…)

Villagers living on a stretch of crumbling coastline gathered this week to have their say on a vision for the future of the cliffs near their homes and businesses.

Corton Village Hall was the base for a display about the local shoreline management plan (SMP) and a new consultation to look at how the proposals might affect those living in the villages between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

The plan, which covers the coast from Kelling to Lowestoft Ness, proposes allowing the cliffs at Corton, and nearby Hopton, to erode more freely after the next 25 years. The SMP states that if the coastline at Corton is allowed to return to its natural alignment, longer term protection may then become more viable. (more…)

EMERGENCY work has started in a bid to protect a vulnerable cliff face that has fallen victim to the ravages of coastal erosion.

The EADT reported last week how homeowners living in North End Avenue, Thorpeness, near Aldeburgh, were becoming increasingly concerned.The heavy storms at the beginning of the month gave the beach such a pounding that tonnes of material was swept out to sea.

In just a fortnight, gently-sloping shingle has been replaced by a sheer drop of between 18 and 20ft, while the gabions – wire nets filled with rocks secured to the cliff face to help reduce the impact of coastal erosion – have also been exposed. (more…)

The waves have washed away the shingle which covered the gabions

Homeowners living on the cliff top at Thorpeness are questioning whether dredging is to blame.

Shingle has been washed away at North End Avenue exposing the gabions (wire baskets filled with rocks) which protect the sandy cliff.

“It’s very, very frightening,” said Sheila Green, who lives there.

The British Marine Aggregate Producers Association said there’s no connection between dredging at sea and the erosion on the beach. (more…)

CONCERNED residents have urged coastal bosses to step in and save their homes from the ravages of the North Sea.

In the last two weeks large sections of the cliff behind properties in North End Avenue, Thorpeness, near Aldeburgh, have been washed away.

What was once a gentle shingle slope leading down to the beach has been replaced by a sheer drop of between 18 and 20ft. (more…)

Coastal protection in the region may fall victim to deep public spending cuts, leaving people to repair their own defences, a former MP has warned.

John Gummer said that people with land and homes by the sea may need to “make do and mend” because multi-million-pound “Rolls Royce answers” would be put on the back-burner.

Mr Gummer, former MP for Suffolk Coastal and president of Suffolk Coast Against Retreat (Scar), said new local initiatives and alternative strategies such as tyre walls and using willow may have to be considered. (more…)

The three main parties have given their views on tackling the problems of coastal erosion along the Norfolk and Suffolk coast.

Last year, proposals to protect the port of Felixstowe and other major towns were put forward by the Environment Agency.

However, Suffolk could still lose the village of Covehithe and 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of farmland as part of a “managed retreat”.

In the Norfolk village of Happisburgh a coastguard station is under threat as the cliff edge it is located near has eroded by 20ft (6.1m) in a decade. (more…)

From tailbacks on the A11 to slow trains to London, a tortoise-speed broadband service to lack of affordable homes, the big issues of this election affect businesses and individuals alike.

Everyone who has sat in a traffic jam at Elveden, been frustrated by a slow internet connection or seen their children forced to leave the village they grew up in because of rising house prices will want to ensure their vote plays a part in bringing change for the better.

For those on and near the coast, few issues are more important than the prospect of losing a home to the sea or a home being uninsurable because of the risk of flooding. (more…)

Jules Pretty decided that blistered feet would be worth enduring to observe at close quarters the social, as well as environmental, effects of coastal erosion. The professor of environment and society at Essex University walked 400 miles around the coastline of East Anglia and travelled another 100 miles by boat. “I started under the M25 at Thurrock in Essex and finished up at King’s Lyn in Norfolk,” he says over the noise from the espresso machine in an Italian café near the Royal Society, where he is heading for a meeting. (more…)