TWENTY years ago Professor David Bellamy was stood in a house on the east coast, which was about to fall into the North Sea.

Now, two decades later, the international environmentalist and television personality has seen first hand how coastal erosion has taken its toll.

Professor Bellamy was back in Tunstall, near Withernsea, after being invited to Sand-Le-Mere Holiday Park which has lost about 328ft (100 metres) of land since 1969. (more…)

THE full cost of preventing the destruction of Scarborough’s sea defences has soared to £221 million.

The height of many of the old sea walls is insufficient to prevent severe wave overtopping which causes damage to the promenades and adjacent area, presenting a serious risk to public safety.

The figure, for the Scarborough Holbeck to Scalby Mills Coastal Defence Strategy, was put forward in an annual report to Scarborough Council by Cllr Andrew Backhouse, its portfolio holder for coastal defences. (more…)

CHALETS which have stood proudly on the east coast for 70 years have become the latest victims to erosion.

Artist Saffron Waghorn says 20ft (six metres) of the Skipsea coast has been lost since December – the worst she has seen in her 20 years living in the area.

Half a dozen chalets with asbestos issues and concrete foundations are currently being demolished because of their position on the crumbling coastline. (more…)

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…)