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…)

A retired engineer has been dealt a blow in his battle to prevent his home from falling into the North Sea after an appeal was upheld.

Conservation watchdog Natural England has today won an appeal against a court judgment to allow the cliffs below Peter Boggis’ home at Easton Bavents, near Southwold, to erode naturally.

Since 2002, the 78-year-old has spent tens of thousands of pounds installing his own “soft” sea defences built of 250,000 tonnes of compacted clay soil in front of the cliffs near his home. (more…)

A film and radio programme highlighting the future of Norfolk and Suffolk’s threatened coastline has received its premiere. The programme made by a group of youngsters aged 13 to 19 was shown at The Cut arts venue in Halesworth on Friday .

With its apt title Canute, the film details the youngsters’ concerns over the loss of land and homes to the North Sea due to global climate change.

The group, under the tutelage of Suffolk-based theatre director James Holloway, recorded scenes at Easton Bavents, near Lowestoft.

Canute Project on YouTube

The man dubbed East Anglia’s King Canute says he will seek formal planning permission before doing work to repair the DIY sea defences beneath his clifftop home.

Peter Boggis, who lives in Easton Bavents, near Southwold, has spent thousands of pounds building sea defences out of compacted clays at the base of the cliffs near his house.

He was banned from maintaining the defences in December 2005 after a four-year dispute with Waveney District Council over the legality of the structures, for which he never had planning permission. (more…)

From a press release on the Natural England website:

Natural England yesterday lodged an appeal against the judgment in the Easton Bavents High Court case brought last month by Mr Peter Boggis.

Shaun Thomas, Regional Director of Natural England, said: “The High Court’s judgment has unintended consequences that go far beyond the specifics of the case. It threatens to stifle the ways in which advice and expert opinion can be used to inform planning and development decisions and poses a real risk of unnecessary bureaucracy. Natural England wishes to work with Mr Boggis to find a solution to the predicament he faces, but we need to resolve the unworkable precedent that the judgment threatens to create.” (more…)

A retired engineer dubbed ‘King Canute” after winning the right to protect his cliff top home from the sea faces a challenge from the Government agency in charge of conservation.

Peter Boggis, 77, spent tens of thousands of pounds building earth barriers to protect his home at Easton Bavents, near Southwold, Suffolk, and those of his neighbours which are threatened by erosion to the cliffs on they stand. (more…)

On crumbling coastline from Humberside to Felixstowe they will cheer his name: Peter Boggis, 77, retired engineer and gallant knight battling for the right of all Englishmen to defend their homes against the encroaching sea. Mr Boggis has spent at least £400,000 building clay barriers to defend his house and his hamlet against the North Sea. He has spent another eyewatering sum fighting a legal battle against Natural England, the government body that argued that his defences were unlawful.

It designated his stretch of coastline a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and argued that, as such, it was in the interests of science to allow the ground beneath his home to erode naturally. Yesterday, in the High Court, he won a remarkable victory. Mr Justice Blair rejected the arguments of Natural England on a technicality. Both sides now plan to appeal. (more…)