Staring out into the North Sea, people living on the coast of North Norfolk pray every day that collapsing cliffs don’t creep any closer to their homes.
A hardy few remain in their seafront houses, refusing to budge, while JCBs scoop up the wreckage of neighbours’ properties from the sandy beaches below.
Many of the residents along the coastline feel ignored and insulted by the authorities who they blame for inaction or indifference.
This week, the region which perhaps more than any other in Britain has carried the can for the disastrous effects of climate change, was infuriated further, after a tax-payer funded coastal erosion support group claimed its staff were taking time off for ‘stress’ due to dealing with them.
Dr Sophie Day, a University of East Anglia researcher working for the Coastwise scheme made the claims in a written statement to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs inquiry.
She said: ‘It is not only communities on the edge who sustain mental health impacts associated with coastal erosion.
‘The current situation is completely unsustainable. I have observed colleagues having to take time off sick because of the cumulative stress.’
Coastwise, a Government project run by contractors on behalf of North Norfolk District Council, has previously said that stopping the cliffs falling into the sea is ‘unrealistic and unsustainable’.
Instead, its stated aim is to come up with ideas to slow coastal erosion and help people deal with the emotional toll.
One of its remits is to look after the ‘wellbeing’ of people losing their homes, which it does by running ‘cafes’ in the various villages devastated by the tides.
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It has also teamed up with mental health charities to help residents to talk about how they feel about coastal erosion in an ‘a-political and non-judgemental environment’.
Norfolk suffered from severe coastal erosion in recent years with many properties abandoned as the cliffs slip away.
A report by climate group One Home previously estimated that coastal homes in England worth a total of £584million could be lost to cliff collapses by 2100.
This bleak situation is tragic for those involved and routinely captivates the public imagination as the problem is now well known and depressingly fast.
A sacry map released by Canadian researchers showed that large parts of UK coastal towns and villages, including Hemsby and nearby Great Yarmouth, will be permanently underwater should a projected 1.6 feet of sea level rise.
This week, the Daily Mail spoke to residents in the isolated, crumbling coastal communities of Happisburgh and Trimingham – two tiny dots on the British map that could cease to exist in a matter of decades.
And although North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) were quick to deny any of their own staff were taking sick days off, the damage done to the confidence of the coast dwellers was quick to settle.
HAPPISBURGH: When the Mail visited Happisburgh, a former jewel in the regions crown, the mood was bleak
When the Mail visited Happisburgh, a former jewel in the region’s crown, the mood was bleak.
Homeowners said they were in disbelief about the Coastwise claims, questioning why they are paying council tax for a ‘non service’.
Linda Balls, 63, a cleaner who has lived in the village for 41 years, said: ‘It’s ridiculous, any old excuse to get off work with stress. They should man up.’
She’s trying to sell her house but finding it far more difficult because of the ‘village falling into the sea’ reputation.
Linda walks her dog, Jake, along the cliffs every day and over the years has seen most of the coast eroded, particularly the sloping path to the beach which has to be replaced every year and a new visitors car park as recently been built as the original collapsed into the waves.
Fellow resident, Melvyn Clulkey, 73, a retired garage owner and local Happisburgh campaigner in Beach Road, said: ‘I think it’s dreadful, what about us and our needs and worries? We need support too.’
Beach Road neighbour, Jacob Visser, 69, a retired engineer moved to the village almost four years ago, as he thought it would be a beautiful place to live, added: ‘I’m shocked and I believe the council should be doing a lot more to help, instead of taking sick leave for stress.’
All residents agree there seems no solution on the table at this time, but meanwhile the cliffs continue falling into the sea.
In nearby Trimingham, where last year NNDC helped demolish a farmhouse that had started falling into the sea, tensions were also high.
Coastwise was looking at how the rainwater from the land was running across the road and soaking the land around the cliff and making it slide down to the shoreline.
Richard Wallis, 66, lives in a four-bedroom flint and brick house nearby that is destined to fall into the sea. He used to take part in the Coastwise scheme but left.
‘It’s pathetic, he told the Mail, ‘the trouble is we’re being dictated to by these people like Natural England who say what we can and cannot do.
‘These people are academic. They do not live on the coast. It’s not their property that’s going to be affected. It beggars the question: do they have the heart?
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Last year, the council helped demolish a farmhouse that had started falling into the sea, tensions are still high
‘[Coastal erosion] is not purely down to the action of the sea. It’s also down to the outflow of the surface water from the land. In the late 1950s and Sixties there were wells sunk along the coast in the land [here] and they’ve all silted up. There are people still here who can tell you exactly where they are.
‘The ponds along the coast that were naturally filling need to be reinstated. Ditches need to be re-dug. Things have been allowed to slip.
‘The water is taking the easiest route and it’s causing this slippage [of clay over chalk] of land into the sea.
‘The trouble is we end up dealing with these academics who do not live in the practical world.’
Mr Wallis, who is also a parish councillor, bought his four-bedroom home nine years ago.
He said: ‘I never thought I would ever get depressed or have slight mental health issues but it’s not easy these days. I have had two heart attacks and I worry about what’s going on everywhere, but I have never sought help or advice or taken time off work.
‘These people [Dr Day cited] I suspect are young. I might be wrong, but when I was growing up it was a totally different time and there was no talk about mental health.
‘I cannot buy this, people saying ‘I’m going to go off sick’. I do not know what pressure they feel or are under.’
When he was with Coastwise, Mr Wallis proposed the idea of seeding the coastal land around Trimingham to help stabilise the cliff but Natural England rejected the idea as being bad for the environment.
He said: ‘I feel that people all along the coast are beaten back and a little bit ignored by these academics that come along and who are all getting paid well and they dismiss our ideas and I can’t be bothered.
‘I got a leaflet through my door about eight months ago from Coastwise offering to address any mental strain with massage sessions.
‘Yes, you heard it here: massage sessions.
‘It beggars belief. It’s laughable.
‘I’m a great advocate for massage but for goodness sake. These people aren’t doing it for nothing.
‘I begin to think about how much money is left because of all these consultants. I’m sick to the back teeth of them.
‘It’s frustrating. I would like to know what’s causing them to have mental health issues. I really would.’
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His comments were echoed by Liz King, chair of Trimingham parish council, who said: ‘Most people who have lived here for a long time are practical. Common sense does not come into it. We very much know local government so we don’t expect too much.
‘Local knowledge is everything and it’s people who have lived 60 plus years here who have seen things and understand the sea and the earth.
‘Of course you then get people who have ideas like seeding the cliffs and making things grow on it and it slows things down but Natural England do not want unnatural plants going on their cliffs.’
A North Norfolk District Council spokesperson said: “North Norfolk District Council and the Coastwise project are working closely with the communities in our area affected by coastal erosion.
‘We have multiple programmes running to develop strategies in collaboration with affected communities which will help address the impact of the changing coastline.
‘The Government has made it clear that building new sea defences is not a long-term viable solution, so our priority is to support our communities and empower them to make decisions about managing the threat of erosion within the funds that are available.
‘This is a complex and sensitive issue with different circumstances in different locations – there is no one size fits all solution.”
Coastwise was also approached for a response to residents concerns.
