On the face of it, any cash offer for homes which were once considered to be worth close to nothing because they are at imminent risk from coastal erosion must be a bonus. But here leading coastal campaigner MALCOLM KERBY explains why he feels the 40pc to 50pc of market value offer likely for a set of homeowners in Happisburgh, reported on the EDP’s front page on Saturday, is simply not up to scratch.

“At the level quoted, which is 40pc to 50pc of no-risk market value, people will not be able to move on uninjured.

It is clear that something is better than nothing and perhaps many people will misunderstand what appear to be negative comments on the matter from me.
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Owners of clifftop homes at Happisburgh are just weeks away from receiving precedent setting cash offers for their threatened properties, potentially bringing a lengthy compensation saga to an end.

North Norfolk District Council has put forward a plan to offer a dozen homeowners between 40pc and 50pc of the theoretical value of their homes if they were inland and not at any risk from coastal erosion.

Council leaders said yesterday the offer was “a very important breakthrough” which was both sustainable and reliable – and could have impacts nationally if the model was adopted at government level.

People losing their homes to coastal erosion have previously faced a future with no compensation for the loss. (more…)

Coastal residents have called for more help in tackling erosion before they back a new shoreline management strategy.

A straw poll among 100 people who attended a meeting at Happisburgh voted to reject the latest SMP between Kelling and Lowestoft, because revisions did not go far enough to compensate the communities affected by cutting back on sea defences.

The key aim of the meeting held on Friday was to see what people felt about the newly revised draft SMP for the section of coast between Lowestoft and Kelling, drawn up in consultation by North Norfolk District Council, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Waveney District Council and the Environment Agency. (more…)

The three main parties have given their views on tackling the problems of coastal erosion along the Norfolk and Suffolk coast.

Last year, proposals to protect the port of Felixstowe and other major towns were put forward by the Environment Agency.

However, Suffolk could still lose the village of Covehithe and 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of farmland as part of a “managed retreat”.

In the Norfolk village of Happisburgh a coastguard station is under threat as the cliff edge it is located near has eroded by 20ft (6.1m) in a decade. (more…)

A village in the forefront of the battle against coastal erosion is hitting back with a £1.6m package of measures to help local people.

Residents of Happisburgh talked to officials at the weekend about a range of projects from buying up endangered homes to tidying up the clifftop and beach.

And a local coastal campaigner stressed that the way the village tackled the issues was a crucial blueprint for helping other communities in the same situation. (more…)

Jules Pretty decided that blistered feet would be worth enduring to observe at close quarters the social, as well as environmental, effects of coastal erosion. The professor of environment and society at Essex University walked 400 miles around the coastline of East Anglia and travelled another 100 miles by boat. “I started under the M25 at Thurrock in Essex and finished up at King’s Lyn in Norfolk,” he says over the noise from the espresso machine in an Italian café near the Royal Society, where he is heading for a meeting. (more…)

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.

Watch the video on TF1