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. (more…)

COASTAL campaigners were left hopeful for the future after a government minister saw first hand how erosion is eating into the region’s shores.

Richard Benyon, of Defra, paid a visit to Scratby, Winterton and Hopton among other spots while on his fact-finding mission to the Norfolk coast on Friday.

And while there, he heard from pressure groups about the ongoing fight to protect coastal communities in an era of government austerity. (more…)

COASTAL campaigners hope a “defences not damages” message will be taken on board by a new government minister visiting a trio of erosion hot spots today.

Influential local pressure groups hope Defra’s Richard Benyon will look closely and carefully at the problems of protecting seaside communities where lives and businesses depend on big beaches.

Brian Hardisty, chairman of Hopton’s coastal erosion group, said abandoning the holiday village to the sea would leave a gaping £7.5m hole in the local economy – more than enough to fund improved defences.

The junior minister will visit Scratby, Winterton and Hopton today to see for himself the consequences of erosion. (more…)

Hopton is aiming to swing a breaker’s ball through a coastal defence plan which suggests no defence.

Leaflets will be dropping on to more than 1,000 doormats urging villagers to take a stand against the Government’s Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) at a public meeting at Potters Leisure Resort on Thursday.

Its suggestion to abandon a huge stretch of the coast to the sea has caused a storm of protest. But Brian Hardisty, chairman of Hopton Coastal Action Group, says not enough people have woken up to the implications of the plan on house prices and the damage it could do to the tourist industry. (more…)