EDGE OF DESPAIR
HOMEOWNERS WATCH ON AS COASTAL EROSION THREATENS TO DESTROY THEIR FUTURES
WHEN Andrew Grant moved to Wexford two years ago he came to start a new life, to put down roots. Having worked as an aircraft developer in Silicon Valley and Germany, he was in search of a slower pace of life, somewhere to bring up his young children and be closer to his parents in Co Waterford. He chose Seaview. Andrew was aware the area had experienced issues with coastal erosion, that the local council were undergoing works to protect the land, but this didn’t deter him from buying a home in this small coastal community. However, since moving to Wexford, Andrew and his family have watched in horror as the coastline in front of their forever home has receded on an almost weekly basis.
But did he realise the extent of the problem before he moved here? ‘Not really, no,’ Andrew says frankly. ‘It’s massively degraded since we came here. At one point we lost five metres, the gullies here have only been formed over the last year. The erosion has been immense, starting from last February it’s been constant.’
While his home isn’t under any immediate threat, the access road which allows Andrew and other residents to travel in and out of Seaview is dangerously close to being consumed by the elements. Since 2012 two access roads have been lost to erosion, with a new one built to replace them each time. Now the newest route is dangerously close to falling by the wayside.
‘You can see here, this road is in danger now,’ says Andrew. ‘We’re not even in the eleventh hour, it’s like ten to midnight. If we don’t have the work done in the space of the spring summer period we’ve lost this road. Access is an issue, for example; we won’t be able to get oil. The oil guy has said it’s getting to the point where it’s dangerous. If you can’t get into the house, you don’t really have a house.’
As someone employed in the aviation industry, the pandemic has not been kind to Andrew. Currently out of work because of Covid-19, he is pouring all his efforts into preserving his home, his future, the future of his children. And yet, despite everything, he has no regrets about coming to Wexford.
‘We really want to stay, we’re really hoping; we’ve put a lot of effort in, engaging with the council, really pushing to get somewhere,’ he says. ‘We love the area and we love the people, it’s an absolutely amazing place. But it’d be nice to sleep at night and know this isn’t always dangling over your head. I’m pretty much jobless since last March. It’d be nice to know we’re going to have a house to live in.’
And Andrew he says the time to act is now, before it’s too late.
‘We want the elongation of the rock armour to continue far enough to at least protect the access road. The window for putting this in can’t be dictated by bureaucracy, that won’t solve this, only action.’
Complicating the issue and creating additional headaches for those in Wexford County Council’s Environment Department, is the need for a new slipway at Seaview to provide beach access for residents, tourists and local walkers.
Currently locals must drive to nearby Ballyhealy if they wish to walk along a beach not 100 metres from their homes. Since 2012, and the loss of the original slipway, a number of measures have been taken to make the beach accessible, but each has been scuppered by the tides, destroyed by a series of unprecedented storms.
Frank Lonergan has lived in Seaview for almost 45 years and has seen, first-hand, how the landscape has been impacted by climate change.
‘ This goes back to November 2013,’ says Frank. ‘From then until February 2014, in the space of three months, we had six severe storms and it took chunks out of the bank there. I’m living here since 1976 and for years the amount of erosion here was minimal. The original roadway which went out to the cottages there was out on the bank, very little of it had been eroded. But in that three-month period that roadway disappeared completely, the pipe
bringing water to the houses was left swinging in the wind, it was incredible.’
In an ideal world a brand new slipway would be installed in tandem with further coastal protection measures. However, the Office of Public Works (OPW) will only fund the latter, meaning the projects must run separately. This has forced Wexford County Council ( WCC) to delay putting in the slipway, much to the frustration of Frank and his neighbours.
‘ The slipway would be the thing those who live around here are very concerned about,’ he says. ‘It is the main access onto the beach, and it’s a beautiful beach, when the slipway was there it provided easy access for everyone who walks the road - it had a railing on it, so there was access for people who were older or had mobility problems, people with children with a buggy. I can’t get onto it, I’m driving to Ballyhealy anytime I want to access the beach.’
Cognisant of the difficulties facing the council, Frank stressed the importance of getting the job done correctly this time around.
‘If they’re putting in the slipway they’d have to remove some of the rock armour to make way for it and then build it up again,’ he explains. ‘But the other part of the coast, where the erosion is occurring, that has to be protected as well; the two projects are linked together. We’re waiting three years for the slipway and there’s no sign of it,’ Frank says. ‘It’s frustrating that you can’t get on to the beach, we had hoped it would be done for this coming summer. However, it’s an emergency to put in the coastal protection, if it doesn’t go in the housing down there will certainly have a problem, they’ll have a problem with access and a problem of wondering how many years it’s going to take to reach their property. Andy is in a very critical situation there, as are his neighbours.’
IT’D BE NICE TO SLEEP AT NIGHT AND KNOW THIS ISN’T ALWAYS DANGLING OVER YOUR HEAD, TO KNOW WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A HOUSE TO LIVE IN