FEARFUL residents whose homes look set to be lost to coastal erosion have welcomed a £1.2m funding package.

A pilot scheme will see East Riding Council buy homes which are likely to disappear into the sea over the next 15 years.

The local authority will then lease the homes back to their owners giving them time and money to plan for a future move. (more…)

A landscape artist has bought a house teetering on a cliff edge so he can document its demise.

Three properties have already had to be demolished on safety grounds because of a landslip at Knipe Point, overlooking Cayton Bay near Scarborough.

Kane Cunningham has paid £3,000 for the next bungalow set to fall over the cliff and will film its end.

He said the house symbolised “lost dreams, financial disaster and threatening sea levels”. (more…)

Series telling the stories of people caught up in extreme weather events in the UK. From floods to hailstorms and even tornados, find out what happens when freak weather hits and show you how to protect yourself, your home and your family from disaster.

A dramatic storm leaves a couple’s dream home teetering on the edge of a cliff and it’s a lucky escape for the family whose house was struck by lightning.

Featuring a couple who invested in a hotel and campsite at the East Yorkshire village of Ulrome on the Holderness Coast.

Watch the episode on BBC iPlayer

Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, is to meet with members of the Humber Estuary Coastal Authorities Group and Environment Agency (Friday Nov 13) following the publication of the draft of the second Shoreline Management Plan (SMP2).

The plan, which covers the coast from Flamborough in the North to Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire, in the South, sets out how and where the coast will be defended for the next 100 years.

Graham said: “This is a draft plan and it is vital as many people as possible use the consultation period to make their feelings known. (more…)

NATURE will continue to take its course along vast swathes of the Holderness coast for the next century under controversial new proposals.

Consultation started yesterday on a “no active intervention” policy for much of East Yorkshire’s fast crumbling coastline, outside settlements and towns which will continue to be defended.

The number two shoreline management plan – which cost more than £300,000 – draws strikingly similar conclusions to a report 10 years ago and has already attracted criticism from some local residents who say the money would have been better spent on helping those who face losing their homes. (more…)

PUBLIC opinion is being sought on plans to improve the sea defences to prevent future coastal flooding.
The Shoreline Management Plan will set the framework for managing coastal flood and erosion defences and focus on how we protect our homes, businesses and farmland.

ELDC’s portfolio holder for planning, Coun Neil Cooper, explained: “The Shoreline Management Plan sets out area by area how the East Lindsey coast will be affected by sea level rise and coastal flooding and provides a policy framework for how this should be dealt with.

“It also considers the effect of climate change on our coast over the coming years.”

The SMP covers the area from the East Riding of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and will consider the implications of coastal flooding and erosion over the next 20, 50 and 100 years. (more…)

PENSIONERS whose homes have been left on the brink of crumbling cliffs by devastating landslips could benefit from a new bid for North Yorkshire to lead the way in helping coastal communities which have no hope of getting expensive sea defences.

Scarborough is pressing to be one of the towns that will test ways of helping communities in erosion hot spots too small to warrant investment in expensive schemes, such as rock armour and sea walls.

It is also hoped that the private estate of Knipe Point, near Filey, where pensioners’ homes are under threat because of flooding and slippage on adjoining National Trust land, may be among those to benefit from the scheme. (more…)

FOR years it has stood as an evocative reminder of the days when Yorkshire’s East Coast faced up to German aggression. But now the East Coast landmark looks set to fall victim to a far more insidious opponent – coastal erosion. [watch video]

The artillery battery that sits on the clifftops near Aldbrough was more than 300ft from the edge when it was built in 1943 to stop shells being fired from enemy ships at Hull.

But by 2000, as the images show, the heavily reinforced gun  emplacements had collapsed into the sea, leaving the tunnels used to carry the shells hanging over the edge. (more…)

Beverley and Holderness MP, Graham Stuart, has urged as many Holderness residents as possible to respond to a new Government consultation on coastal change policy.

The consultation looks at how coastal communities can successfully adapt to the impact of coastal change over the next few decades. One of the main issues the Government is keen to look at is the level of assistance afforded to homeowners who are affected by coastal erosion. For example, the consultation asks the following:

• Do you agree that it is appropriate for Government to make available public funds to local authorities to cover demolition costs for which private homeowners are currently liable?
• Is the homeowner assistance package set at the right level to strike the balance between individuals taking responsibility for their investment decisions, and ensuring that local authorities are able to provide practical assistance to homeowners who lose their home as a result of erosion? If not how could this be done?
• How should the payment mechanism for the demolition and moving assistance grant work? What evidence should be provided to Defra to support a claim for demolition and moving costs? (more…)

PLANS to rescue 56 homes on the cliff edge at Scarborough could be scuppered by an agreement entered into by the council in 2007, according to watchdogs Natural England.

The organisation’s regional director has also expressed his surprise that planning permission was ever given to build the bungalows when it was known that the land they are built on was at risk of landslip.

He added that, rather than spending £20 million on shoring up the homes at Knipe Point, Cayton Bay – as Scarborough Council is hoping to do – it might be better to relocate the families living in the threatened properties. (more…)