A cliff-top home near Southwold in Suffolk is being demolished due to the threat caused by coastal erosion.

The house in the hamlet of Easton Bavents was built in the 1930s and was originally about 260ft (80m) away from the edge of the cliff.

It is now just a few yards away from the edge and demolition work has begun.

Waveney District Council is piloting a government-funded scheme to fund the demolition and help residents affected by coastal erosion relocate. (more…)

A treasured family home at risk of crumbling into the sea is to be demolished before Mother Nature can take hold.

Sitting on the cliff edge at Easton Bavents, near Southwold, Thursley has been in the Thrawle family for four generations. While a groundbreaking policy recently approved by the local council gives hope to Suffolk homeowners facing coastal erosion, it comes too late for this isolated, two-storey building.

The house will be demolished on April 4. (more…)

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…)

The speed of coastal erosion at Easton Bavents in Suffolk has shocked villagers who have been told more than three metres of land was lost to the sea in the last month.

Pictures taken by aerial photographer Mike Page show how much of the cliffs have disappeared over the last 13 months.

One villager, Paul England, said it was the fastest erosion he had ever seen.

Richard Daniel reports.

Story on the BBC News website

In October 2009 two homes on a piece of land called the Retreat at Easton Bavents, near Southold were just six metres from the clifftop.But the site of the homes is now teetering on the edge of the destruction.

In just the space of four weeks a large part of the land belonging to the England family has crumbled away because of erosion caused by strong northerly winds.

Glancing at the latest photograph it could be easily concluded that the two homes, a chalet and mobile home, have fallen victim to erosion and plummeted off the cliff.

But in fact the homes off Easton Lane have been destroyed by human hands as part of a landmark agreement to help homeowners cope with losing their properties due to the long running and untlitmatley futile battle with Mother Nature. (more…)

Villagers living in a small coastal community are calling for help to protect their bid for relocation before the winter weather speeds up erosion of the cliffs beneath their homes.

Two homes in Easton Bavents, north of Southwold, are just six metres from the cliff edge and owners fear they are in danger of falling into the sea.

In August, the homeowners were told that Waveney District Council was seeking legal advice on creating an escrow (a document kept in the custody of a third party) to protect the owners’ residential land-use rights even if their homes are lost, helping them to relocate further inland.

The proposition is part of Waveney’s £1.5m Pathfinder project, a government-funded scheme to explore options for communities at risk of erosion. (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…)

SEASIDE communities dotted along the borough’s coast need to stand together to have any chance of getting government to pay for sea defences or compensation for those who lose their homes if they don’t.

The call came from Malcolm Kerby of Happisburgh who is fighting for social justice on a national stage, on Thursday in Ormesby St Margaret.

The campaigner, widely regarded as the most knowledgeable person outside Government on coastal erosion, was in the village urging people to sensibly object to the emerging second draft of the Shoreline Management Plan. (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…)

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…)