LIVING UNDER

WHEN Bev Wilkins moved to the remote seaside 18 years ago she imagined an idyll of daily bracing swims in the sea in front of her home and long walks on the deserted beach with her German shepherd, Roxy.

She had sold her home in Kenilworth, Warks, to move to Fairbourne, a village of just 450 homes, situated between the Snowdonia National Park and the Irish Sea in North Wales.

But those houses lie barely above sea level and, in 2014, Bev and the other residents learned that Gwynedd Council plans to stop maintaining Fairbourne’s coastal defences beyond 2054.

The houses, the pub, post office and shops will be “decommissioned” by 2054 because of the threat of rising sea levels caused by climate change.

The villagers still do not know when they will have to leave and where they are expected to go. And they are furious that they have become “guinea pigs”, the first community in Britain to be surrendered to the waves.

Bev, 70, says: “When I moved here the council were encouraging people by not charging any stamp duty. But now I feel we have been cut off at the knees. I am not sure why we have been singled out.

“I have lost almost half the value of my home. We are trapped. There is no way I can afford to go back to somewhere like Kenilworth. I’m resigned to the fact I’m stuck.”

The village is protected by a sea wall, earth banks and a web of drainage channels. While parts of the country suffered devastating floods this year, Fairbourne last flooded in the 1940s.

Gwynedd Council ruled it could no longer afford to maintain the defences in 2013, a decision only made public a year later when details of the plans were uncovered on BBC Wales series, Week In Week Out.

Six years later, house prices have plummeted, sales have fallen through and, understandably, there is sadness, confusion and frustration at the lack of clarity for the long-term future of the community. Bev says: “If we do get to this magic decommissioning year, and they have been wrong about the sea breach, while I probably won’t be here, I want the council to compensate residents. “Property prices have plummeted and our earnings have disappeared. I have told my children to keep on fighting when I have gone.” Mike Thrussell, 65, an angling journalist, has also suffered a financial blow, telling how he has lost 40% of the value of his

LOW LYING Fairbourne in North Wales PROTECTION Village’s sea defences NO WAY OUT Mike Thrussell says he cannot afford to move out of Fairbourne

IN LIMBO Mike Thrussell tells our reporter Nada the village’s future looks uncertain

ANGRY Resident Bev Wilkins