Half a million pounds to save Filey homes

Scarborough Council has approved works to safeguard nearly 50 Filey homes from coastal erosion.

Half a million pounds of Coast Protection grant funding is to be spent protecting 45 homes at Flat Cliffs from a possible cliff collapse.

A report, which went before the council’s cabinet, found that the access road to the homes is at risk of failure, cutting off the properties completely.

It stated: “If the access road were to be severed, there is no alternative means of the residents gaining access/egress to/from their properties and, in effect, the community is lost even if their properties remain (for the time being) unaffected directly by erosion.

“If people elect to remain living there, there is no means for emergency services to access the site or refuse removal.

“If no intervention is taken, the ongoing cliff instability, linked to both coastal erosion at the cliff toe and ground movements within the coastal slopes, will lead to imminent loss of the sole access road to Flat Cliffs.

“This would in effect ‘write-off ’ the coastal community with immediate effect, rather than in 20 years time when the onset of direct property loss is expected.

“In addition to the community at Flat Cliffs, there are some residential properties at The Fold in Primrose Valley (immediately to the south of Mile Haven) and some parts of the Primrose Valley Holiday Village (including some of the permanent buildings which house core facilities) that will become at risk from erosion and landsliding in the medium to longer term.”

The report accepts that the measure is simply “buying more time” before the “inevitable property losses are incurred, enabling adaptation plans to be developed and implemented by each individual affected”.

Filey Cllr Mike Cockerill, said the work was “desperately needed” as the situation was “there for all to see”.