HUNDREDS of properties in Scarborough’s North Bay could be at risk unless vital work is carried out to bolster the existing sea wall defences, it has been claimed.

A recent inspection revealed the need for “urgent” emergency work to be carried out to stabilise sections of the sea wall to prevent breaches of the defences.

Many large hotels and residential properties would be under threat if the wall failed. Scarborough Council’s Cabinet agreed to accept £87,000 from the Environment Agency for the project and will appoint consultants to investigate to best way to carry out the vital work. (more…)

AS their sea-view homes creep perilously towards a cliff-edge, residents at a private retirement estate say they have endured a “two-year hell” cloaked by uncertainty.

Now they have a whole new battle on their hands after dismissing land put forward for the relocation of 15 bungalows at Knipe Point near Scarborough as a “glorified council estate”.

In a final draft report which has been exclusively obtained by the Yorkshire Post, five parcels of land have been short-listed as preferred sites for the relocation of the homes which are deemed to be the most at risk. (more…)

OVER £6 million has been allocated to Scarborough Borough Council (SBC) to be spent on coastal risk management projects over the next four years – but only £500, 000 has been earmarked for Whitby.

The biggest chunk of funding, from the Environment Agency, is just over £3 million which has been allocated to SBC for the Strategic Coast Monitoring programme because it is the lead authority for all the coastal councils from the Scottish borders to Flamborough Head.

Over the next five years that money will be used to continue the coastal monitoring and data collection along the north east coast region. (more…)

RESIDENTS of a hamlet teetering on a cliff edge on the North Yorkshire coastline fear some homes will not survive the winter following a fresh series of landslips.

Three clifftop homes at Knipe Point, overlooking Cayton Bay, near Scarborough, have already been demolished after landslips. Residents at the site say about another four yards of land has fallen away during the recent cold snap, leaving their bungalows closer to the edge of a large drop into woodland below.

Around 15 homes, mainly owned by elderly people, are deemed at imminent risk and for some who have retired to Knipe Point, all of their money is tied up in their now worthless properties. (more…)

People living on a crumbling cliff edge near Scarborough fear their homes will not survive the winter after snow and ice caused fresh landslides.

Landslips have already led to the demolition of three cliff-top homes at Knipe Point overlooking Cayton Bay.

Residents at the site say about another four metres (13ft) has fallen away during the recent cold snap, leaving their bungalows closer to the edge.

Fifteen homes, owned mainly by elderly people, are deemed at imminent risk. (more…)

A HOMEOWNER is preparing for his “Last Christmas” at a bungalow which is just eight feet away from falling into the sea due to massive coastal erosion.

The semi-detached two bedroom property at Knipe Point was worth £160,000 just two years ago, but after huge landslips hit the area the house was put up for sale for just £3,000.

Last Friday the Evening News reported that an extra 20ft of land at Knipe Point had slipped away in the past few weeks. (more…)

MORE than 20ft of land has slipped away from Scarborough’s Knipe Point, leaving residents’ properties closer to the edge.

RESIDENTS living at Knipe Point fear they have been “left to disappear” after the latest landslip.

The site, near Cayton Bay, has been devastated after further landslides left some properties just feet from disaster.

Homeowners were given hope last year after a £1 million Government Pathfinder grant from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affair (Defra) was given to Scarborough Council to manage coastal change.

However, worried residents said the money, which must be spent on relocation costs to help residents whose homes are at risk, had yet to materialise. (more…)

A landscape artist has bought a house teetering on a cliff edge so he can document its demise.

Three properties have already had to be demolished on safety grounds because of a landslip at Knipe Point, overlooking Cayton Bay near Scarborough.

Kane Cunningham has paid £3,000 for the next bungalow set to fall over the cliff and will film its end.

He said the house symbolised “lost dreams, financial disaster and threatening sea levels”. (more…)

PLANS to rescue 56 homes on the cliff edge at Scarborough could be scuppered by an agreement entered into by the council in 2007, according to watchdogs Natural England.

The organisation’s regional director has also expressed his surprise that planning permission was ever given to build the bungalows when it was known that the land they are built on was at risk of landslip.

He added that, rather than spending £20 million on shoring up the homes at Knipe Point, Cayton Bay – as Scarborough Council is hoping to do – it might be better to relocate the families living in the threatened properties. (more…)

Earlier this week 57 Knipe Point Drive was a two-bedroom bungalow on a clifftop estate worth about £150,000. This morning the house is probably worth next to nothing, even though it boasts a new sea view extending for miles over the woodland and shingle of National Trust-owned Cayton Bay on the Yorkshire coast.

Diggers have demolished two bungalows that stood between number 57 and the cliff edge. The move prevented the houses following in the wake of their well-kept gardens and patios, which plunged 30 metres into the bay below, leaving the hamlet one of the most precarious in the UK. Dramatic landslips caused by unexplained water saturation in the cliff have claimed about seven metres of land at Knipe Point over the past month, and demolition has created a gap in the lines of bright white homes that were worth a total of around £9m.

Read the full story by Fay Schlesinger on the Guardian website