100ft cliff collapses on to seafront loos after heavy rainfall
WITH seven miles of golden sands, it is one of Britain’s best loved seaside towns, attracting five million visitors every year.
But a stretch of Bournemouth’s seafront has been closed after a huge landslide left it looking like a scene from a disaster movie.
An estimated 50 tons of rock crashed down towards the promenade, putting an Edwardian funicular out of action and destroying a block of public toilets. It is thought earth soaked by heavy rain then quickly dried out by the sun caused the 100ft East Cliff to become unstable.
A council worker running the cable lift spotted cracks in the rock on Saturday and alerted officials.
Luke Watkins, a seafront ranger for the council, said: ‘Luckily, some structural engineers were here. We made a decision to close the toilets, cafe and cliff lift and cordon off the area at the top.
‘We informed the emergency services. Then at 5.15am on Sunday I got another call telling me the power to the CCTV had gone down and that I had better go and have a look. It was a huge landslide, much bigger than anything we have seen before. We were expecting something to happen but we didn’t think it would be so quick.’
Tourist Derek Baker said: ‘It is frightening to think I was only walking along the cliff top at this spot yesterday.’
A memorial to Red Arrows pilot Jon Egging, who died in a crash at the town’s air festival in 2011, now stands just 10ft from the precipice and may have to be moved. A council spokesman said further shifting of the rock was ‘possible over the next 48 hours’.