Bulldozers are due to move in and demolish Happisburgh’s doomed cliff-top homes this spring as the blighted seaside village prepares for a new lease of life.

Angie Fitch-Tillett, North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) cabinet member for the coast, said the council’s final purchase of nine erosion-threatened Beach Road homes had been wrapped up just before Christmas.

She added: “We are looking to get them down in the foreseeable future. In the worst case scenario it will be a couple of months.”

The news has come as a huge relief to defiant Bryony Nierop-Reading, the sole remaining permanent resident, who refused to sell her bungalow.

She has been frustrated at the delay in demolishing her former neighbours’ homes and angry at having to call the police because of intruders in the empty properties.

Mrs Nierop-Reading, 66, claimed NNDC had failed to make them secure until contacted by the News last week.

Mrs Fitch-Tillett said time was still needed to complete legally-required asbestos and bat surveys on the properties and NNDC also had to wait until a Happisburgh landowner, who has not been identified, had submitted an application for nine replacement homes on a plot in the village.

Police confirmed that they had been alerted to two recent attempted burglaries in Beach Road.

One night last week Mrs Nierop-Reading was returning home when she heard someone tread on glass in the empty property beside hers. She headed back to the village to ring the police and said she saw someone leave the building and drive away.

“It isn’t at all pleasant. They need to get on with this demolition. They are empty, deteriorating and a security risk. It’s a bit like putting a sick animal to sleep – no-one wants to do it but you know it’s for the best,” she said.

“It will make it a bit colder up here for me, and less private, but it’s got to be done – it’s the worst of all possible worlds at the minute.”

A Midlands family have also refused to sell their two Beach Road holiday homes and the three remaining properties will leave a gap-toothed cliff-top line after demolition.

Campaigner Malcolm Kerby, of the Coastal Concern Action Group, said those who had decided to sell had received 40 to 50 per cent of their properties’ ‘no-problem’ market value out of NNDC’s £3m pot from the government’s pioneering Pathfinder scheme aimed at helping communities cope with erosion blight.

Although he believed central government should fully compensate householders for their loss, NNDC had “screwed as much out of the deal as possible for people,” based on current government policy which Mr Kerby said could be summarised as: “It’s your own fault for moving to the coast.”

He added: “What we’ve got is as good as it gets. I am very pleased with the outcome of the Pathfinder. I think when it’s complete later this year it will reset Happisburgh for the next quarter of a century in a very good way.”

Work on new Beach Road public toilets is due to begin “imminently” according to NNDC. The block will stand in a newly-built car park which replaces one nearer the cliff edge. The new facilities will be fully open at Easter and a picnic area will be ready soon afterwards.

Story by Alex Hurrell in the Eastern Daily Press

A planned “buy to lease” scheme aimed at helping seaside homeowners and communities threatened by erosion is being dropped by a coastal council.

But officials in North Norfolk are looking at other options and a campaigner says there are better ways of boosting blighted communities.

Buy to Lease was being investigated as a way of an authority purchasing properties in danger of being lost to erosion between 2025 and 2050 – and leasing them back to the owners or someone else.

It would give the householders more security and scope to decide their future and remove the wider blight caused by lack of investment in doomed properties.

But officials have now say the council should not proceed with the scheme because of a raft of problems including that the long term risks and liabilities were too great.

Council cabinet member for coastal issues Angie Fitch-Tillett said Buy to Lease was one of the options to help householders. It could work in areas not affected by erosion but the certainty of loss meant properties had not been maintained and were not up the standards needed by a social landlord such as a housing association.

“We are not a social landlord, we would not get a return and the homes are not up to standard,” she explained.

The £170,000 budget for Buy to Lease meant it would only be able to used on one or two properties.

It would be disappointing for the owners affected but the council would be looking at other options said Mrs Fitch _Tillett, who has recently been made the lead on coastal erosion in the national special interest group of the Local Government Association.

Other schemes helping coastal communities adapt to erosion issues were pressing ahead, she stressed.

Coastal campaigner Malcolm Kerby said Buy to Lease was not an option he personally favoured. He preferred a different approach – property value underwriting – which is among the council’s alternatives.

Ever since 2004 he has called on the government to underwrite properties affected by the abandonment or removal of existing sea defences.

“Our island has been eroding for millennia. Our first priority must be to defend. We need a 21st century solution – a socially just alternative. Where the private sector fears to tread the angel of government should walk,” he added.

Ministry officials fought shy of the underwriting idea because they feared it was writing a blank cheque.

But with only around 250 properties affected nationwide the multi-million bill was still much smaller than other government spending such as fighting wars in Afghanistan, added Mr Kerby.

There is positive news with other initiatives under the Pathfinder scheme, which saw £3m of a £11m national pot given to North Norfolk to tackle issues arising from coastal erosion.

Ninety businesses have been helped under a business support scheme stretching from Cromer to Happisburgh.

And now the council is moving towards providing more grants and loans to help ventures needing to adapt to their coastal circumstances but struggling to get help through private finance.

Story by Richard Batson in the Eastern Daily Press

The last resident of Happisburgh’s doomed Beach Road says she has no regrets about her decision to stay until the sea finally forces her out of her cliff-top bungalow.

Bryony Nierop-Reading has only her cats, stunning sea views and nearby sand martins for company after declining to join neighbours who have sold up to North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) and moved away from the fast-eroding coastline.

Mrs Nierop-Reading, 66, says she loves living just 45ft from the cliff edge where she can enjoy the sea in all its moods – but she is “seriously worried” that NNDC has a “sub-agenda” to remove or rearrange existing sea defences, allowing wave action to erode the Beach Road coastline unchecked.

Beach clearance and demolition of the vacant homes around Mrs Nierop-Reading, is due to begin shortly as the council seeks to landscape the blighted area for public recreational use.

“I can understand that these houses are a bit of an embarrassment because they are a permanent reminder to people of what we are letting the sea take,” she said. “My big worry is that there is therefore a sub-agenda to get rid of this corner of the coastline.”

Mrs Nierop-Reading felt she could not morally accept NNDC’s offer of government Pathfinder cash because, unlike her neighbours, she had known when she bought her home in 2008 that sea defences would not be maintained.

“I love the open space and the light. I would find it depressing to be confined,” she said. “I can practise my musical instruments as loudly as I like.” But she misses lights in neighbouring homes at night, and the knowledge that if she’s ill, someone will call with a pint of milk.

She claims that when she recently asked BT for a landline telephone, the company said NNDC had asked them to remove all the telegraph poles as no-one lived in the road any longer.

An NNDC spokesman said they would be happy for the poles to be retained as necessary. The removal of redundant beach defences was supported by the local community. All the rocks would be staying but some would be slightly realigned to make them more effective.

He added: “We have always respected Ms Neirop-Reading’s wish to remain and have worked hard to ensure that her interests are carefully protected throughout the implementation of the Pathfinder projects.”

Story by Alex Hurrell in the Eastern Daily Press

The final resident living on the crumbling seafront of a Norfolk village has said she will remain defiant despite her last set of neighbours moving out.

Bryony Nierop-Reading, whose house perches just metres from the cliff edge on Beach Road, Happisburgh, said she would stay until given no other option.

The 65-year-old turned down compensation to move inland last year.

“It’s more powerful to argue for something if you are on the spot,” said Mrs Nierop-Reading.

“Also it’s nearly everybody’s dream to live by the sea.”

Mrs Nierop-Reading lived three miles (4.8km) inland in Witton until she moved to her “cultural hub” of Happisburgh in 2008, despite the dangers of living so close to the sea.

“Occasionally it makes one panic stricken,” she said. “But most of the time I feel extremely safe here.

“Every morning I go to the French windows and open them and listen to the sea. The view is incredible.”

Compensation deal

Her last neighbours – the Gilbert family from Nottinghamshire – said farewell to their holiday home during Easter 2011 after accepting a compensation deal offered to them by North Norfolk District Council’s Coastal Pathfinder project.

Ten out of 13 homeowners on Beach Road accepted a share of £726,000 compensation this month out of a pot of £3m earmarked to help the cliff-top residents.

David and Jill Gilbert were sad to see their property, which they purchased in 1976, slowly lose its battle with the sea.

“We’ve had honeymoons down here, weddings, 80th birthday parties, 21st parties and big family get-togethers,” said Mrs Gilbert.

Mr Gilbert added: “It’s been really sad. About eight years ago [the cliff] went very quickly and we thought ‘that’s it’, but we’ve hung on over the last few years.”

Other owners on the road to move out this year include Diana Wrightson, who with her business partner Jill Morris ran a guest house and tea garden for 26 years at Cliff House.

She accepted compensation worth 40% of what her house would have been worth if it was not at risk from coastal erosion.

“It’s very sad to see it happen and what makes it more sad is that it was absolutely unnecessary to allow it to get to this stage,” said Happisburgh resident Malcolm Kerby from the Coastal Concern Action Group (CCAG), which was set up to help the community fight against the onset of the sea.

Beloved home

Mrs Nierop-Reading knows that one day she will also have to move from her beloved home and feels sympathy for the Gilberts, who became the last family on Beach Road to abandon their house.

“I must say if I’d have been perched where they are I think I would have done the same thing – they don’t have much alternative,” said the grandmother of six.

“For all the people who’d been here for a long, long time… they moved here when the council had promised to keep the sea defences up and they have ended up taking Pathfinder money, but they’ve also got a sense of betrayal.

“I came here knowing it would go eventually and so I’m in a very different position to them. Thankfully I wasn’t offered enough money to tempt me.”

There are currently no funds set aside to maintain or improve the aging sea defences at Happisburgh, but a scheme is in place to move the cliff-top car park and possibly build a new shop and toilet block in the village.

“The NN Pathfinder has been applauded by local people as well as government officials and we are pleased that we have been able to undertake a number of successful projects,” said Peter Battrick from North Norfolk District Council.

“But there is a specific amount of money for a specific set of projects,” he added.

The council is set to demolish the vacant Beach Road properties in the summer.

Story on the BBC News website

Listen to the Gilbert family talking to BBC Radio Norfolk

Homeowners in Happisburgh whose houses are perched on the cliff-top and at risk of falling into the sea because of coastal erosion have started the process of moving out and moving on.

In Happisburgh work has been taking place as part of North Norfolk District Council’s Coastal Pathfinder project with the striking of deal to compensate those whose homes are perched on the edge of Happisburgh’s crumbling cliff in Beach Road.

The council was awarded £3m in 2009 from the government’s pathfinder programme, which ends this autumn, to explore ways of helping coastal communities plan and adapt to coastal change.

And now the homeowners who have accepted deals, are starting to move out from the village.

One of those is Di Wrightson and her business partner, Jill Morris, whose home, Cliff House, is metres from the cliff edge.

The two, who ran a guest house and tea garden for 26 years until forced to close five years ago because their home’s position made investment in improvements uneconomic, are currently in the process of moving into their new home in Northrepps.

They are also helping out at a new tea shop The Blue Willow Tea Rooms in Hamilton Road, Cromer, which opened on Monday, April 18 and is owned by Ms Morris’s son James, 43, and his wife, Max, 45.

It is a turn around as James often used to help out when he was a teenager at the Cliff House tea rooms.

Ms Wrightson said: “The hope was always that when we retired James would take over the business in Happisburgh but that was not meant to be. So he has bought the café here and we are helping out.

“It has been a very stressful time, especially with helping at the café as well, it has all come together at the same time, trying to move out of our Happisburgh home and into our new one.”

But she said although there was sadness at leaving Happisburgh, the move and work at the new café was keeping them motivated.

She said: “It has given us a bit of hope, it is something to look forward to. This is a real opportunity with a lot of possibilities for us. We also love what we do, meeting people and the different customers.”

She would not reveal exactly how much they had been offered for their home, but said it was around 45pc of what it would have been if the house was not in a ‘problem’ area.

She also said she aims to keep up contact with Happisburgh, retaining her role as chairman of the Friends of Happisburgh Lighthouse and said she would also be paying frequent visits to the village.

Speaking about the pathfinder project she said it had “not done enough”. She pointed to the Happisburgh based Coastal Concern Action Group’s campaign for 100pc compensation, and said although they were happy to have been awarded something, there should have been full compensation for the homeowners.

Jane Archer and Chris Cutting’s Happisburgh Beach Road bungalow was infamously valued at just £1 in 2008 when they tried to use it as collateral for a loan. Mr Cutting said they expect to move out in the summer, after 23 years spent raising three children in their home.

In total 13 home owners on Beach Road were made offers, 10 have now accepted the offers, with two owners declining offers. A spokesman for North Norfolk District Council said there are now no more offers or negotiations outstanding. The conclusion of the deal means the council is handing over just over £726,000 to help the at-risk householders from the £3m pot of national pathfinder cash.

A spokesman from North Norfolk District Council said following demolition and clearance of the homes, which is expected to happen in the summer, the land will be incorporated into a landscaping scheme for the area which will complement a new car park. The scheme will be developed in consultation with the Happisburgh Local Liaison Group and Happisburgh Parish Council and will be paid for from pathfinder funds.

Malcolm Kerby, a leading campaigner with the Coastal Concern Action Group, said: “The pathfinder project has been a stepping stone, but it is by no means the end, it is only part of a process of delivering a much better system of managing our coastline.”

Story by Tracey Gray in the Eastern Daily Press

More funding is needed if trailblazing work protecting the coastline is to continue and be rolled out across the country was the message from a two-day conference looking at how successful projects around the coastline in North Norfolk have been.

Leading figures from the Environment Agency and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who have a say on coastal policies and flooding, are in North Norfolk this week looking at the work which has taken place as part of North Norfolk District Council’s Coastal Pathfinder projects.

The council was awarded £3m in 2009 from the government’s pathfinder programme to explore ways of helping coastal communities plan and adapt to coastal change.

Pathfinder projects so far have included the striking of deal to compensate those whose homes are perched on the edge of Happisburgh’s crumbling cliff.

On Monday the delegates visited the various pathfinder sites, including the cliff tops at Happisburgh, to view the properties on Beach Road at risk of falling into the sea because of coastal erosion.

They were also informed of pathfinder funded plans to move Happisburgh’s car park from Beach Road to another cliff top site to the east, and create a toilet block, and a shop or kiosk, and also clear debris off the beach.

Clive Stockton, NNDC cabinet member for coastal strategy, said: “The whole idea of these two days is that we spread the word about the pathfinder projects we have implemented and use that to lobby for the pathfinder programme to be continued with further funding.

“We want the government to see there has been a real value in it, so we are going to lobby that point and also lobby for pathfinder to be made a national policy.”

The delegates also visited other pathfinder funded projects including the re-opening of The Marrams footpath, a vital link between Cromer’s Runton Road car park and the Melbourne beach access slope, which was closed in January 2007 following a cliff slip. The path has been successfully re-routed and is now safe to use.

Ian Bliss from the Environment Agency said: “What this has shown is how really effective the partnership has been between the district council and engaging with the community.”

Speaking about if lessons could be learned for other places facing coastal erosion he said each place had to be looked at on a “case by case” basis.

Peter Moore, environment policy group manager at Dorset County Council, which has been awarded £376,000 in pathfinder money, said: “We are looking to learn lessons from North Norfolk and have been inspired by what we have seen, particularly in terms of the beach debris clearing and the work looking at moving the caravan park in Happisburgh to another location.

“The aim of all of this is to get people interested in coastal change who have not been interested before and also hopefully get further funding for the pathfinder programme.”

Today the delegates will attend a series of talks and will discuss the merits or otherwise of the various projects, particularly looking at how the successes may influence government coastal policy in the future.

On Monday, the district council’s cabinet also agreed to support the scheme to relocate the coastal village’s Beach Road car park and transfer ownership and management of the car park, and new public toilets which will be built in it, to Happisburgh Parish Council.

They also supported plans to replace the nine cliff-edge homes on Beach Road, soon to be demolished, and to give officers authority to agree terms on a suitable village site or sites for the replacements which would be built on about 0.8 of an acre of farmland.

Story by Tracey Gray in the Eastern Daily Press

Two projects crucial to the revitalisation of erosion-blighted Happisburgh will take another step nearer realisation tomorrow.

Schemes to relocate the coastal village’s Beach Road car park and to replace nine cliff-edge homes, soon to be demolished, are due to come before North Norfolk District Council’s cabinet tomorrow morning.

Councillors are being recommended to support the transfer of ownership and management of the car park, and new public toilets which will be built in it, to Happisburgh Parish Council.

The parish council supports the move, which would see it benefit from car-park income. The project, which would include a new beach access ramp to replace one destroyed by coastal erosion, is expected to get planning approval early next month and should be built in time for the summer season.

The cabinet is also recommended to back the principle of replacing the Beach Road homes – bought for demolition by NNDC using government Pathfinder cash, aimed at helping coastal communities manage erosion – and to give officers authority to agree terms on a suitable village site or sites for the replacements which would be built on about 0.8 of an acre of farmland.

The council would like to consult on draft proposals for the scheme in May and hopes to gain outline planning permission for it in July or August.

Story by Alex Hurrell in the North Norfolk News

Plans to clear debris from the beach at Happisburgh have been approved and assurances have been 
offered about the possible impact it may have on the already occurring erosion.

The debris consists of the remains of old coastal defences, lost cliff-top structures and the old, now eroded lifeboat ramp.

Planning officers say that where possible, concrete remains will be incorporated into the existing rock defences.

The proposals were approved by North Norfolk District Council’s cabinet last week. In a report officers state: “The debris restricts access along the beach, poses a potential hazard to visitors and detracts from the appeal of Happisburgh as a visitor destination.”

They also said after holding public consultations that the overwhelming response had been in support of removing the debris.

At the same time as removing the debris, the council will also take the opportunity to adjust the current rock bund to make it as effective as possible as a defence along the Beach Road frontage.

The council say they have tried to assess the impact clearing the debris will have on the current rate of erosion of the coastal cliffs, but they say although it is their belief any impacts would be minor and of a short duration, that cannot be formally confirmed.

“The cliff line over the frontage is expected to adjust quite quickly to the removal of the debris. This might have the effect of straightening the cliff toe line in the short term, particularly on the north-east corner, but would not be expected to have any longer term impacts on rates of erosion.”

Proposals to move Happisburgh’s car park from Beach Road to another cliff top site to the east have also been submitted to North Norfolk District Council and are currently under consultation.

The new site, also off Beach Road where 16 homes have been lost to erosion over the years, is designed to be able to retreat and adjust as the coastline changes.

As well as the 74-space car park, the plans also include a “relocatable” toilet block, and a shop or kiosk, likely to be run by the RNLI lifeboat branch, and a new ramp to the beach, which will replace the lifeboat ramp which was lost to erosion in December 2002.

The planning application states: “This location will provide convenient access to the best part of Happisburgh beach. While the cliffs at this location are certainly susceptible to erosion, the scheme has been designed to be adaptable to such impacts.”

Both the clearing of the debris and the moving of the car park will be paid for by part of a £3m pot of Pathfinder funding from central government, aimed at helping communities adjust to their changing coastlines.

Story by Tracey Gray in the North Norfolk News

People living in homes along Norfolk’s coast under threat of destruction have been offered compensation.

It follows talks between North Norfolk District Council and owners of the homes in Beach Road, Happisburgh.

The money will come from the Pathfinder scheme, to help communities and compensate households.

One householder, Di Wrightson, has been offered 40% of what her house would have been worth if it was not at risk from coastal erosion.

She said: “We were expecting to go away with nothing and we are now going to go away with something

“We’d have liked to have gone away with enough to buy another house, but that is not on the cards.

“What we’ve got is very satisfying in that we can start life all over again.”

Story and video on the BBC website

Householders whose doomed homes are perched on the edge of Happisburgh’s crumbling cliff have finally struck sales deals and can start new lives elsewhere – ending more than a decade of uncertainty.

Demolition could begin in May on most of the at-risk homes along Beach Road and North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) chiefs say that by the summer Happisburgh will have a new look and facilities to welcome visitors.

Leading campaigner Malcolm Kerby said the agreements, revealed in an NNDC report today, represented a fresh beginning for Happisburgh which would have “knock-on benefits all round.”

The breakthrough follows payments agreed between NNDC and nine of the 12 owners of 13 homes. Negotiations are still under way with a 10th but the two remaining owners have decided to stay put and not sell to the council.

If the 10th deal is concluded, it will see the council fork out some £725,000 to help the at-risk householders from its £3m pot of national Pathfinder cash, given to help communities threatened by the government’s decision not to maintain their sea defences or compensate affected households.

Amounts paid are expected to be made public as each purchase is completed but Mr Kerby, co-ordinator of the Coastal Concern Action Group, said he understood they represented 40pc to 50pc of each home’s value had it not been in an at-risk position.

Di Wrightson, whose home is metres from the cliff edge, said she and business partner Jill Morris would move out next month and were looking for rented accommodation somewhere near Happisburgh.

They ran a guest house and tea garden for 26 years until forced to close five years ago because their home’s “dodgy position” made investment in improvements uneconomic.

“I feel betwixt and between – relief, obvious sadness, and a certain amount of anger that the whole thing has happened,” said Ms Wrightson.

“We’ve been fighting for social justice for years and in some ways I’m disappointed that we didn’t get the 100pc we were aiming for, but something is better than nothing and at least we have now got some money behind us to help us lead a better life.”

Jane Archer and Chris Cutting, whose bungalow was infamously valued at just £1 in 2008 when they tried to use it as collateral for a loan, expect their deal to be completed imminently and to move out in the summer, after 23 years spent raising three children in their home.

“We don’t know where we’re going,” said Ms Archer, 51. “We won’t have enough to buy somewhere else and at our stage of life it will be difficult to get a mortgage.”

Peter Frew, the council’s head of coastal strategy, said they had done the best they could for householders within the constraints laid down by government and he believed most of those affected recognised that.

The council planned to replace each demolished property with a new home in the village, said Mr Frew. Cleared sites would be landscaped and the beach would also be cleared of debris, and a new access ramp provided to the sands. The previous one was washed away in 2002 and access was now restricted to those who can manage a steep metal staircase.

Visitors would be able to reach the ramp from a newly-located car park, with toilets, which would be moved to a more-protected location south of Beach Road. All would be designed as ‘roll-back’ facilities which could be moved again as erosion crept nearer.

“We will be restoring Happisburgh to where it was 20 years ago,” said Clive Stockton, the council’s cabinet member for coastal strategy who also runs the village’s Hill House pub. “It will become a destination for visitors once again.”

Businesses stretching from Overstrand to Horsey, plus community projects such as Happisburgh’s Beach Road car park have also benefited from the Pathfinder pot, which has now all been allocated.

Among those helped are:

* Some 88 businesses offered services which have cost about £700,000, ranging from independent advice to grants for relocation costs or improvements.

* Trimingham Village Hall which is to be rebuilt in another location with about £200,000 of funding towards the project.

* The cliff-top Marrams footpath in Cromer which is currently being redirected, at a cost of about £45,000.

Next month NNDC will host a two-day conference of site visits and talks at which it will share its Pathfinder experiences and expertise with organisations affected by coastal change. The event is part of the council’s bid to shape future government policy.

“At the moment this Pathfinder project is a one-off,” said Clive Stockton, NNDC cabinet member for coastal strategy. “The question is, what happens next? We want to see this as part of a rolling programme of support.”

Story by Alex Hurrell in the Eastern Daily Press