A groundbreaking policy to help beleaguered Suffolk homeowners who face losing their homes to coastal erosion is to be formalised next week.

On Wednesday, Waveney District Council is to set in stone a lands right move promise for people in Corton and Easton Bavents.

Once ratified, people who face losing their property to Mother Nature over the next 20 years can move to safe land nearby and still keep residential land use so they can build similar properties if they follow relevant planning law.

Businesses will also be able to relocate in similar arrangements. (more…)

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 £1.5m project to help two threatened communities find ways to adapt to coastal erosion was officially launched this week.

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 possible ways that they can change their lifestyles, homes and businesses to adapt to the changing coastline.

With about 95 homes in Corton at risk within the next 100 years and tourism businesses relying on the local beaches, it is hoped that Pathfinder will help people come up with constructive ways to limit the effects and costs of erosion. (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…)

It is an aerial picture that evokes the full force of the North Sea – its waves breaking against a vulnerable cliff-face.

And it is one that makes it all too clear why residents in Corton, to the south, and Hopton, to the north of this stretch of coastline between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, are increasingly anxious about the future.

Their concerns were voiced to the minister for marine and natural environment Huw Irranca-Davies when he visited the area on Monday and saw the depleted beach at Hopton and crumbling sea defences at the northern end of Corton. (more…)

A successful multi million pound bid to solve major coastal problems in Norfolk and Suffolk was hailed by experts and campaigners last night as the most important step ever taken in the management of the coast.

And as three local authorities – North Norfolk, Waveney and Great Yarmouth – celebrated winning nearly £5m out of a national pot of £11m to address a range of challenges, officials in charge of managing the coast said the money would help individuals about to lose their homes to erosion, the two counties as a whole and also build future policies for the rest of the country in the face of climate change.

A small number of people teetering on the very edges of some cliff tops, including in the now internationally known erosion hotspot of Happisburgh, were for the first time guaranteed payments for the loss of their homes where they had previously faced walking away with nothing. (more…)

Naturists have flocked to its sands since the 1970s but now one of Britain’s first nudist beaches is to be axed because of coastal erosion.

Waveney District Council has confirmed that following a three-month public consultation the naturist beach at Corton, near Lowestoft, will be de-designated with effect from November 1.

In a statement the council said it was committed to exploring suitable, alternative facilities for the naturist community.

But Malcolm Boura, research and liaison officer at the British Naturism organisation hit out at the decision. He said: “This will come as a blow to our members and it is going to upset a lot of people.” (more…)