Dramatic photos show house teetering on edge of cliff in village where 100 homes are at risk of falling into sea
SHOCKING pictures show a house teetering on the edge of a village cliff – and 100 more homes are also at risk of toppling over.
Residents in Hemsby, Norfolk, say the government have abandoned them after it scrapped a sea defence scheme.
As the coastline continues to erode, homeowners in the village are in perpetual fear that their property will soon make way.
Local authorities warned that the collapse of homes is inevitable.
Rocks are being used in the areas worse affected by erosion, but locals are still concerned.
Campaign chair Mr Brennan, 63, told Norfolk Live: “I know the borough council and our MP Brandon Lewis are saying that we haven’t been abandoned, but, actually, that’s how we feel.
“Hemsby is suffering. Seeing what has happened and knowing if nothing is done it is going to happen to you must be a terrifying prospect.
“The authorities know what needs to be done and it’s only political will and the inaction of the landowners and the absence of funding that makes their loss pretty inevitable.
“The last study showed that 92 homes are at risk if nothing is done. How much does Hemsby need to bleed before something is done?”
Lance Martin, 65, first pulled his home back from the cliff edge in 2018 after he lost 40m of his back garden to erosion.
The pensioner said: ‘The overwhelming feeling amongst the neighbours is one of despair. I keep a smile on my face.
“I haven’t broken down yet. I crack on with it – there’s nobody to blame, you just have to accept it and move on.”
It is estimated that over 2,200 homes will be lost by the end of the century.
Coastal communities in Cornwall, Cumbria, Dorset, East Yorkshire, Essex, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Northumberland, Norfolk and Sussex are most at risk.
Mandy Jephcote, who owns a £75,000 bungalow, was lucky to escape with her life when she saw her front garden slowly disappear into the sea.
“It was so scary,” she said.
“I huddled up with my dogs and prayed.
“I didn’t get to sleep until dawn.
“And in the morning I found out I had lost 10ft of my garden into the sea.
“In fact in the past year I have lost 20ft of my garden. It was 40ft long when I bought the property.
“Now it’s barely 20ft. The rest has gone over the cliff.”
Great Yarmouth Borough Council issued a statement on behalf of its coastal management team, Norfolk County Council and local Tory MP Brandon Lewis to confirm the sea wall project would not be going ahead as planned.
It said: “The primary source of funding for the proposed work would be via a Flood Defence Grant-in-Aid from the Government.
“Currently schemes of this cost and scale would only attract Flood Defence Grant-in-Aid where hundreds of homes are at risk.
“However, currently, the proposed scheme for Hemsby doesn’t qualify for sufficient Government funding to allow it to progress.”