Homeowners in the coastal erosion hotspot Happisburgh will not have to wait for long into the new year for discussions to start about the payments they may receive for their houses under a project to tackle the impacts of coastal change.

As reported previously in the EDP, North Norfolk District Council has been awarded a £3m pot of government money to trial a number of ground breaking ‘pathfinder’ projects to tackle the impacts which erosion has on communities, individuals and businesses.

The most awaited of those projects is a plan for the council to offer to buy a small handful of the most at-risk houses along Beach Road in Happisburgh and demolish them, allowing their occupants to buy another home instead of being left with nothing. (more…)

A woman whose home is likely to fall into the sea says she will refuse thousands of pounds of compensation to which she would be entitled.

Bryony Nierop-Reading’s home is within a few yards of an eroding cliff edge, uninsurable and not worth much in financial terms.

But recently the government announced funds to allow the purchase and demolition of homes like this by the local authority, allowing her to ‘escape’ from the apparent Catch-22 situation and put the cash into another property.

But that was the moment she chose to take the less than obvious choice.

She says that when she bought her three-bedroom Happisburgh bungalow, on the now famous Beach Road, she knew the risks and has now refused to take any money, while issuing a warning that she will not be moved against her will. (more…)

En Grande-Bretagne, le réchauffement climatique se fait déjà sentir, notamment dans le Norfolk, région la plus exposée face à la mer, dans le nord-est de l’Angleterre.

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Officials responsible for spending £3m of government money in a bid to tackle a range of coastal challenges in north Norfolk have pledged to make it a priority to talk to individuals and communities about how the money will be spent.

As news of the ‘pathfinder’ grant to North Norfolk District Council continued to sink in yesterday, the reaction of delight turned to questions about how the project would work in practice.

As reported in yesterday’s EDP, the north Norfolk handout was by far the biggest of 15 grants made nationally, with Waveney District Council coming in second with £1.5m and the majority of others below the £1m mark.

While some of the £3m in north Norfolk will be spent buying clifftop homes which are at imminent danger and having them demolished, or buying and leasing back some less at-risk homes, there will also be a large amount of money for other projects which will be explained more fully to the public. (more…)

For Malcolm Kerby climate change is no distant threat to the Third World. He lives where it is already ruining lives… in Britain.

His home is in the small village of Happisburgh on the North Norfolk coast where the shore is retreating, battered by increasingly ferocious rising seas.

“This is the front line of climate change in Britain,” he says. “We can’t deny it. It’s happening. We see it with our own eyes.” (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…)

Home owners who face losing their East Anglian properties to coastal erosion were offered the hope of receiving proper compensation last night.

The chairman of the Environment Agency has suggested that the government sets up a buy and lease scheme along the region’s coast.

Lord Smith said that authorities such as North Norfolk District Council should be given funding to purchase and then lease back up to 250 homes that are likely to fall into the sea in the next 20 years. (more…)

I have an idea how the Government could start on the huge spending cuts that will be required after the next election: replace the environment department with a man carrying a sandwich board bearing the message “Prepare to meet thy doom”. He would do much the same job as Hilary Benn but at a fraction of the cost. Yesterday the UK Climate Impact Programme, a quango set up by his own department, published a report predicting the effects of global warming over the next century.

It warned, among other things, of increasing tempest and flood, speeding up coastal erosion. Mr Benn’s response? We’ll have to redouble our efforts to cut carbon emissions – but there won’t be a penny of extra cash for flood and sea defence. Moreover, there was not a hint of any change of policy over constructing thousands of new homes most at risk of river and coastal flooding, in places such as the Thames Gateway. (more…)

A campaign body which has attained international importance on the issues of climate change and coastal erosion, or a tiny community group representing the interests of a few hundred people in the Norfolk clifftop village of Happisburgh?

On the 10th birthday of the Coastal Concern Action Group, Ed Foss explains why it is both.

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The clifftop village of Happisburgh is not alone in its plight.

Yet it has become an international icon in the worldwide battle against the impact of a changing climate, its name being mentioned by media organisations, government institutions and academic bodies across the globe. Australia, America, Japan, South Korea, Holland, Germany, Canada and France are just some of the countries that name has reached.

Linked inextricably with the mention of Happisburgh is the Coastal Concern Action Group, a body born of local need in 1999 because it was recognised that the village’s problems with erosion needed focus. (more…)