A village could lose 24 homes due to the ‘devastating’ effect of erosion on the fastest disappearing coastline in north west Europe – where 10 yards of land has plunged into the sea in less than a year.
Monitoring of the soft clay cliffs on the 80km Holderness Coast, east Yorkshire has found that the coastline is eroding at a rate of between 0.5m and 4m each year.
A report found that the erosion, which is likely to increase in future due to climate change, will put 24 homes in Skipsea at risk by 2025.
Members of East Riding of Yorkshire Council are now calling on the Government to provide funding for affected residents – who face paying thousands of pounds to demolish their own homes and relocate.
Monitoring of the soft clay cliffs on the 80km Holderness Coast, east Yorkshire has found that the coastline is eroding at a rate of between 0.5m and 4m each year (pictured, houses on the coastline in Skipsea)
Members of East Riding of Yorkshire Council are to meet after a report found 24 homes are at risk on the coast, which has seen losses of up to 10 metres since March (pictured, deterioration of a cliff road in Skipsea)
Jimmy Mac, 28, who lives with his partner Megan Shaw in a chalet home in the village has been told his rented home needs to be demolished as soon as possible after the cliff at the bottom of the garden eroded past the nine-metre mark deemed safe by East Riding of Yorkshire Council (pictured, homes that have lost part of their gardens to the coast)
The report predicts that this erosion, which is likely to increase in future due to climate change, will put 24 homes in Skipsea at risk by 2025.
But it says that a ‘single erosion event’ could put a large number of properties at imminent risk within the next year and more than 200 residential properties will be lost within the next 100 years.
Jimmy Mac, 28, who lives with his partner Megan Shaw in a chalet home in the village has been told his rented home needs to be demolished as soon as possible after the cliff at the bottom of the garden eroded past the nine-metre mark deemed safe by East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
The couple said the cliff edge is now 8.2 metres away from the back of their property. They fear they will find it hard to find alternative rented accommodation because they own four dogs.
Looking out over the crumbling cliffs and the calm North Sea, Mr Mac said: ‘It’s not just that, though. Look what we’re losing. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? It’s a dream home. It’s just a shame. I don’t want to move from this house.’
He added: ‘Everyone loses out at this end. They could block that, they could put barriers up there but they won’t.’
Mr Mac said he put a golf tee in the cliff top to see how fast the cliff was eroding.
He said: ‘It was sad to see how much we are losing. It was quite a short time. Obviously the sea’s crashing against it, it just needs a sea barrier, doesn’t it?
‘On a stormy night when the waves are crashing, it keeps you awake. I don’t know if I’m going to wake up with the sea in my bed.’
He added: ‘Build a barrier. I’ll help build a barrier free of charge.’
A report predicts that this erosion, which is likely to increase in future due to climate change, will put 24 homes in Skipsea at risk by 2025. But it says that a ‘single erosion event’ could put a large number of properties at imminent risk within the next year and more than 200 residential properties will be lost within the next 100 years (pictured, coastal erosion in Skipsea)
The area has no coastal defences due to governments’ decisions to let nature take its course in the more sparsely populated areas of the coastline. And residents are expected to meet the costs involved in demolishing their homes and relocating (pictured, coastal erosion in Skipsea)
Many of the homes are almost teetering on the brink of the cliff, as coastal erosion has seen their properties move ever closer to the edge. Carol Woods, 55, from Goldthorpe in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, said her parents own a caravan on a site near Green Lane. She said they have had to move the mobile home back from the cliff edge a number of times
Councillors have said that residents in areas such as Skipsea are ‘appalled’ that they are not being protected when they see other areas, such as the more populated Withernsea, receiving funding for coastal defence schemes.
One Green Lane resident, returning home with bags full of shopping, did not want to talk about the situation, but said: ‘We’ve had the council round here for the last seven years. But nothing ever changes.’
Carol Woods, 55, from Goldthorpe in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, said her parents own a caravan on a site near Green Lane.
She said they have had to move the mobile home back from the cliff edge a number of times.
Mrs Woods added: ‘They won’t defend Skipsea because it’s a small village, it’s like the land that time forgot.
‘I do think people are wanting some kind of defence put up, which is only fair really.’
Mrs Woods’s husband Mick, 59, said: ‘Erosion’s doing to this country what the Germans couldn’t do. Because in the war they put all concrete blocks on beaches so the German Luftwaffe couldn’t land their aeroplanes, so they didn’t land, but nature has landed, hasn’t it?’
The road between Ulrome and Skipsea fell into the sea a number of years ago and now the route is blocked by concrete blocks with red ‘danger’ signs.
On the cliff top, huge cracks in the ground show which sections are likely to go next.
And a walk along the beach reveals pipes and electrical cables in the cliff face, exposed by previous erosion events.
Councillors have said that residents in areas such as Skipsea are ‘appalled’ that they are not being protected when they see other areas, such as the more populated Withernsea, receiving funding for coastal defence schemes (pictured, erosion of a coastal road in Skipsea)
Residents are also left facing a bill of thousands of pounds to demolish their homes and, while the council has historically met these costs, it cannot afford to fund the demolition of all 24 properties at risk (pictured, homes at risk in Skipsea)
Standing on the broken road, Mr Woods added: ‘If I live another 20 years, we’d be in the sea now. Probably another four or five years, all this will be in the sea.’
Government decisions have been to not defend much of the sparsely populated coastline, with coastal defences not economically, socially or environmentally sustainable for large stretches of the coast.
Councillor David Elvidge, who will chair a meeting on the issue today, said: ‘With the amount of funding available, we can only really defend the large areas of population. It’s a devastating thing.’
Residents are also left facing a bill of thousands of pounds to demolish their homes and, while the council has historically met these costs, it cannot afford to fund the demolition of all 24 properties at risk.
As a result, councillor Jane Evison is now calling on the Government to provide funding to help cover these costs, which she said can be as much as £20,000.
She said: ‘The council is in a position where they’re not allowed to defend a coastline and neither are the private householders, clearly there’s erosion taking place, one or two homes are at very high risk, yet there’s no funding.’
Councillor David Elvidge, who will chair a meeting on the issue today said people in unprotected places such as Skipsea (pictured) are ‘appalled’ when they see coastal defence schemes being planned for other areas
Councillors are now calling on the Government to provide funding to help cover these costs, which she said can be as much as £20,000. Monitoring of the soft clay cliffs on the 80km Holderness Coast, east Yorkshire has found that the coastline is eroding at a rate of between 0.5m and 4m each year
Ms Evison added: ‘I’ve asked for a letter to go to Defra to say, ‘Look, as we’re not allowed to take action regards defending anything, we need funds available to keep people safe to help them with the costs of demolition and keep that coastline safe for people’.
‘I don’t think it’s a fair situation when we’re not allowed to provide any protection but we’re picking up the bill to keep people safe.’
Mr Elvidge said: ‘To lose your home and then the financial cost on top must be traumatic to say the least. If the Government could stump up the cash, that would be fantastic.’
He said people in unprotected places such as Skipsea are ‘appalled’ when they see coastal defence schemes being planned for other areas.
A £5.5 million scheme, which has received £3 million funding from the European Regional Development Fund, is due to start in Withernsea this year.
He said: ‘It shouldn’t have to happen like that but unfortunately that’s where we are.’
Simon Barkley (pictured), 52, has been threatened with having to move from his caravan set back from the collapsing cliff. He lives in Bradford but stays at the park around 12 times a year and believes the government has ‘let the area down’
Residents of Green Lane have been told when the coast reaches 9.2m from their houses, they must agree to compulsory evictions – or face paying for the demolition and clean up costs themselves
The councillor said he hoped residents might be reassured after the meeting on Wednesday.
He said: ‘I want them to take away a reassurance that we’re doing everything we can to protect our coastline where we can and, where we can’t, we’re helping our residents every way we can.’
Simon Barkley, 52, lives in Bradford but stays at the Crossways Caravan Park around 12 times a year and believes the government has ‘let the area down’.
He said: ‘Over the last two years, it has eroded by about 12 metres. It’s a real shame, it’s a lovely part of the world and it’s nice to come here and get away from everything.
‘People will lose their homes within five years, many people in the town have already packed up and left. It’s inevitable that this caravan will end up in the sea. People’s houses will be gone, it is just a matter of time.
‘People here just can’t believe it, it’s devastating. I’m gutted to see it erode like this.’
He added: ‘My friend who owns the land has lost about a third of it. A lot of money has been put into protecting other areas, but nothing in here. The government hasn’t done enough. They have let the area down.’
Deborah Hawksley (pictured above), who owns a property on Green Lane in Skipsea, which is at risk of falling into the sea. Councillors in Yorkshire are to discuss the ‘devastating’ effect of the coastal erosion
A £5.5 million scheme, which has received £3 million funding from the European Regional Development Fund, is due to start in Withernsea this year. A councillor said he hoped residents might be reassured after the meeting today
Residents of Green Lane have been told when the coast reaches 9.2m from their houses, they must agree to compulsory evictions – or face paying for the demolition and clean up costs themselves.
Self-employed builder Liam Patrick, 28, lives in a two bedroom bungalow with his girlfriend, Megan Shaw, at the end of Green Lane closest to the cliff.
He has lived at the house, which is owned by Megan’s father, for three years and said he will have to be dragged ‘kicking and screaming’ from his house.
He said: ‘This will be the first house to go into the sea. It’s heartbreaking, it’s a dream home. We love the view we wake up to every morning.
‘They say you have to leave when the cliff is nine metres from the house, we’re already at that, if not past it slightly. They should definitely build a barrier and a sea defence for the house.
‘It’s poor from the government. I think it will get to the point where houses will have to come down and the government will be forced to do something. But they should have done something by now.’
Liam added it will be difficult to find a house big enough and with sufficient land for his five pet dogs to roam.
He said: ‘I don’t know where we’ll find somewhere else big enough.
‘I put a golf tee on the cliff two metres from the edge a couple of months ago and the tee is now in the sea. That’s how quickly the cliff is eroding.When it is stormy it keeps you up at night. It clearly needs a barrier.
‘It feels like the government aren’t really bothered about us. We are being treated like second class citizens.’
Deborah Hawksley lives in Beverley, but has been visiting her family’s home on the sea front in Skipsea since she was a child. Her elderly mother still owns the property, but it is used as a holiday home for the family.
Mrs Hawksley said she spent entire summer holidays in the home as a child and the family would often visit for weekends.
But now she faces the prospect of the house being demolished before it falls into the sea.
On the cliff top, huge cracks in the ground show which sections are likely to go next. And a walk along the beach reveals pipes and electrical cables in the cliff face, exposed by previous erosion events
Sheila Garforth, who has lived in Green Lane for 20 years, said she is being treated like a ‘second class citizen’. She accused the council of having ‘no input’ and ‘whittling away’ money from Defra on ‘admin and other things’ in the past
She said: ‘We are losing our homes. It is inevitable, but it is inevitable because there has been nothing done about it. We never see the council, except for once a month when they come through our gardens measuring how far the cliff edge is from the house.
‘We are currently four metres away from the eviction point. It’s devastating. We have lost a great deal of land to the sea. I spent my entire childhood here, we would spend full summers here. I scaled these cliffs as a child and now we are losing our homes to them.’
She added: ‘I have seen the cliff just get closer and closer to the house over the years and it is heartbreaking.
‘We have boarded the windows up because when the sea is strong, it throws rocks up and we have come to the house to find the front window smashed and rock in the living room.’
Peter and Sheila Garforth have lived in Green Lane for 20 years.
Sheila said: ‘We are being treated like second class citizens, there has been no input from the council, they are not interested in us. They’ve had money from Defra in the past and they have whittled it away on admin and other things.
‘We have lived here for 20 years and paid our mortgage off, we don’t want to go and pay rent somewhere else now. We don’t want to move, but we know we will have to very soon. It’s heartbreaking, we’re really upset about it.’
Peter said: ‘We used to have a 28 metre garden and a 12ft road then 39 metres of cliff. All that has disappeared and we are left now just metres from the edge.
‘When we bought this house, we did a lot of work on it, re-wired it, installed central heating. We spent thousands on it, it was our investment for the future and our retirement. We retired here and wanted to spend the rest of our lives here. Now we are being told we will have to leave and we won’t get any financial compensation for it. It’s really not on.
‘We pay our council tax and the level of service we get is shocking. We have no street lights and we have to wheel the bins down to the end of the street ourselves. We are just forgotten about by the council. They are not interested in us at all.’