HOMEOWNERS and businesses threatened by coastal erosion have been offered funding help of £100,000.

Grants from the East Riding Coastal Change Pathfinder, a £1.2 million project funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has been made available.

East Riding Council can award grants of between £500 to £30,000 to schemes which provide coastal adaptation and coastal or estuarine flood resilience.

Hornsea North Cliff Boating Club has benefited from £30,000.

Club member Peter Loveday said: “It is all part of a rollback scheme.

“In the last year or so, we’ve lost 40 to 50ft of land, so we bought eight acres at the back.

“The money will be used for a new road to the site for touring caravans and to redevelop the compound for the boats.”

During the first small grants awards last spring, about £50,000 of the available £150,000 was allocated to coastal communities.

Mr Loveday said: “It’s a good idea and it means the work can be carried out at once, rather than steadily when we get the funding.

“It has helped us a lot and it wasn’t hard to get so I would encourage other people to look into going for the funding.”

Overall, the Coastal Pathfinder funding has been used to help more than 35 households in the region most at risk to coastal erosion.

A spokesman said Defra was evaluating how the scheme had gone.

Application forms and guidance notes will be available to download from www.eastriding.gov.uk from Monday, until the closing date for applications, Monday, April 30. Hard copies of all documents can also be requested by e-mailing coastal.management@eastriding. gov.uk or calling 01482 391728.

Story in the Hull Daily Mail

A COUNCIL has pledged to seek more funding to help communities affected by coastal erosion amid fears it may lose the support of residents when money for an innovative aid project dries up next month.

A £1.2m scheme funded by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is due to end in March, and East Riding Council, which administers it, said it was determined to explore other sources of finance to assist some of the most exposed households in England.

All of the money in the East Riding Coastal Change Pathfinder project (ERCCP) has now been allocated to households in the Aldbrough, Cowden, Hornsea, Skipsea, Tunstall and Ulrome areas, and 35 of them have been helped adapt to the impact of “coastal change”.

The scheme has also funded the demolition of 43 dangerous structures and properties.

Coun Jane Evison, portfolio holder for rural issues and cultural services, said: “The council cannot turn back the forces of nature but what we have for the first time been able to do through Coastal Pathfinder is to provide real practical support and assistance to people most at risk to coastal erosion .

“As the project comes to an end in March, I want to stress that we will not be resting on our laurels but will continue to lobby hard for additional funding, recognising the strong case for supporting people living on undefended East Riding coastline that does not meet the Government criteria for sea defences, and highlighting how much can be achieved with relatively small amounts of money.”

A council review of the scheme said residents’ expectations had been raised that assistance would continue to be available – and warned that much of the co-operation from the communities affected may be lost if aid is suddenly withdrawn.

It said: “As a result of communities gaining a better understanding of coastal change issues and management policies, demand for adaptation assistance is growing.

“The delivery of the ERCCP has inevitable led to a considerable increase in expectations for ongoing support amongst coastal residents.

“If funding is not made available on an ongoing basis there will be a loss of momentum and a real risk of communities being unwilling to work with the authorities in the future.”

It also notes that Defra has yet to publish guidance about the future funding of “coastal change adaptation measures”, or set a time scale for the publication of the national coastal change policy.

The ERCCP was not intended as a compensation scheme, but to provide practical support to those most at risk.

The money has been used to help with the cost of property demolitions and site restorations, which was previously born in full by residents.

In addition, financial support has been provided to cover practical relocation costs and for establishing residents in their new homes in safer locations.

People have also received money towards removals and the purchase of essential white goods and furnishings for their new properties.

The support offered to each resident has been based on an assessment of individual circumstances and the criteria set by the council.

There is also a small grants fund to enable individuals, groups and businesses in the East Riding to develop innovative approaches to coastal erosion and coastal flood risk management.

Earlier this week, a new report showed that rates of erosion have more than doubled on some stretches of East Yorkshire’s coast.

The average rate of land loss on the East Coast is 1.5 metres to 2.5 metres a year. But 10 metres was lost south of Withernsea and Hollym, while at Aldbrough, 8.5 metres disappeared, and at Waxholme, north of Withernsea, seven metres were lost to the sea.

Story in the Yorkshire Post

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

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.

But despite waiting two years for the sites to be put forward by Scarborough Council after it was awarded £1m under the Government Pathfinder scheme, residents feel they are no nearer to being released from “limbo” after their choice only appeared fourth on the list.

After analysing 48 sites, Scarborough Council has ring-fenced a proposed housing development on Muston Road, in nearby Filey, as the preferred option.

However, residents have set their sights on a holiday village in the Crossgates area of Scarborough, which would see them rehoused in eco-friendly luxury timber lodges.

Malcolm Pirks, chairman of the Knipe Point Residents Association, said: “We have now been waiting for two years with the Pathfinder because there hasn’t been any land that has considered to be suitable. Land seems to be very scarce in this area, especially for the amount we want. We have found a plot that has a very similar environment to what’s here, but there are problems with it as far as the council’s concerned.”

Following a major landslide in early April 2008, two bungalows left precariously balancing on the edge of the cliff were demolished later that month, followed by a third bungalow in May.

A section of Filey Road was closed last year over fears vehicles could plunge down the slope, and a further landslip in December saw more than 20ft of the site slip away due to heavy rain.

Stabilising work was ruled out after Scarborough Council estimated it would cost between £16m and £20m to protect the 56 properties at Knipe Point, which are worth around £5m.

But the residents were thrown a lifeline in 2009 when the authority was awarded £1m from the Pathfinder grant by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to help to relocate affected homeowners, with the rebuild cost coming out of their insurance following the demolition of their houses.

The Muston Road development has planning permission for 300 properties and is close to Filey School. It is owned by Coast and Country Homes and a small parcel of land on the site belongs to Scarborough Council. This has sparked controversy among a number of residents who believe the council wants to use its own land in order to pocket a portion of the grant.

Strenuously denying the claims, Coun Andrew Backhouse, the authority’s portfolio holder for the Environment and Coastal and Flood Defences, said: “The council owns a small piece of land on Muston Road, which is landlocked. We could have promoted council-owned land but the chosen sites are all owned by private developers.”

Residents have also hit out over the development being sited in an area which is prone to flooding. The problem has been highlighted in the report, which has angered residents as water saturating the land around Knipe Point was revealed as a cause behind the slips. “It would be like going out of the frying pan and into the fire,” said 73-year-old Judy Backhouse.

Coun Backhouse said: “Yorkshire Water has recently spent £500,000 updating all the drainage and on top of that the developers have submitted drainage plans for the whole site.”

After years of breathtaking views across the North Sea, the residents of Knipe Point say they are unwilling to move into the middle of “a council estate”, which will have affordable housing attracting young people with children and be unsuitable for residents who are mainly pensioners. There is also near an 850-pupil school.

A holiday village on the outskirts of Scarborough, which appears at the bottom of the list, meets residents’ approval, but there is a problem with squatters.

Coun Backhouse said the Crossgates site was unsuitable as it did not have permission for residential use and was only suitable for holiday lets.

However, he was prepared to put the residents’ case forward to DEFRA at a private meeting on September 7.

Couple looking for a way out

Ron and Judy Backhouse have owned their house on Knipe Point Drive for 19 years and after spending the past three living on the edge, they fear there is still no end in sight.

On New Year’s Day they watched as their 12ft-high garden shed toppled over the edge of the cliff into the woodland below, and the couple’s manicured garden grows smaller by the day.

The pair have spent the past two years anxiously waiting for an alternative site to be announced.

Mrs Backhouse said: “We have been in limbo for two years and we want a way out. It has been two years of hell.

“We have lived here 19 years and we came here to stay but we have accepted if we have to go we have to go.

“But we don’t want to go to the middle of a glorified council estate with 800 kids just across the road and somewhere that has flooded twice in the last few years.

“I would rather look for a place I like and rent.

“It’s a shame we will have to lose a house and rent but that’s our only choice.”

Story in the Yorkshire Post

MORE than 125 people flocked to a Jurassic Coast Pathfinder exhibition that sparked debate on Sidmouth’s crumbling coast.

Recharging beach at Pennington Point or extending town-centre sea defences to the east were suggested by those who attended the event at Kennaway House last Thursday, writes Charlie Lister.

Residents and visitors got the chance to learn more about coastal erosion and get involved in making decisions about managing the coastline.

Scores browsed information on display, with 80 packing a pair of presentations held by the Pathfinder team.

Project manager Rupert Lloyd said the event was well-received.

He added: “It was evident from the discussions that people in Sidmouth are keen to get involved in sustainable ways to adapt to change.

“There was a good mix of residents and visitors who contributed to a lively discussion about the future of Pennington Point.”

The exhibition included specially commissioned, digitally-generated images of how radically Sidmouth’s coast could change in 20, 50 and 100 years time.

But the project team emphasised that these dramatic projections only show how Pennington Point might change under a policy of ‘no active intervention’ and encouraged a discussion of the alternative options.

The current policy is one of ‘managed realignment’.

Mr Lloyd added: “Proposed ideas included recharging the beach at Pennington Point, or extending the sea defences which protect the town centre to the east end of the beach.”

“A lot of people are aware that coastal change will always happen, that’s the reason that Sidmouth, as part of the Jurassic Coast, is a World Heritage Site.”

“We cannot afford to defend everywhere forever against the advancing sea, but we can widen the range of options open to communities to adapt to change.”

The Jurassic Coast Pathfinder project was launched in December 2009 as one of 15 projects nationwide designed to better engage communities in the process of planning to adapt to coastal erosion.

A priority aim of the project is to “encourage coastal communities to actively and meaningfully participate in the decision making process regarding coastal change.”

Story by Charlie Lister in the Sidmouth Herald

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

A cliff-top home near Southwold in Suffolk is being demolished due to the threat caused by coastal erosion.

The house in the hamlet of Easton Bavents was built in the 1930s and was originally about 260ft (80m) away from the edge of the cliff.

It is now just a few yards away from the edge and demolition work has begun.

Waveney District Council is piloting a government-funded scheme to fund the demolition and help residents affected by coastal erosion relocate.

David McGinnis, project officer of the Pathfinder scheme, said: “We’ve been working with the communities of Corton and Easton Bavents to try and find a way to adapt to the change that is inevitably coming.

“We’re about to roll out a rather intensive programme of consultancy to try and find a new site of relocation and to roll back the community of Easton Bavents.

“That’s going to go on for the next 10 months and hopefully we’ll come out with a package where we’ve got a site and we’ve successfully achieved outline planning permission for the owners to relocate to a new site.”

Mr McGinnis said trying to save the under-threat houses was not part of the project’s remit.

“Pathfinder was never set up about sea defence simply because the funding of that is too vast,” he said.

“In the current financial climate in this country we wouldn’t have the funding to undertake such huge civil work to protect the land.”

Story on the BBC website