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Work starts to shore up crumbling cliff face
Rock defences are to be built at Hemsby in Norfolk in a bid to slow coastal erosion after three clifftop homes were demolished over the weekend. Trucks yesterday started to deliver granite to the resort, with almost 2,000 tonnes being brought in for what is described as a “short-term, interim option”. It is hoped the rocks will help shield the sand dunes from waves that have been biting into them, with high spring tides this month taking their toll.
Another house remains precariously close to the edge. Lance Martin, 65, first pulled his home back from the cliff edge at Hemsby in 2018 after he lost 40m of his back garden to erosion. Yesterday he said he was planning to drag it back a further 40m this week with a tractor. Great Yarmouth Borough Council earmarked his one-bedroom, chalet bungalow home for demolition.
Mr Marting lost 4m from his back garden over the weekend, which he had reinforced with rocks and fencing to slow the erosion. His home now lies just 1m from the cliff edge. He said: “The overwhelming feeling amongst the neighbours is one of despair. I keep a smile on my face. I haven’t broken down yet. I crack on with it, there’s nobody to blame, you just have to accept it and move on.”
Carl Smith, leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said yesterday that contractors were beginning to bring truckloads of rock from a stockpile at Hopton, around 22km (14 miles) south of Hemsby. The work is being managed by the council’s coastal management team, Coastal Partnership East (CPE), and it was hoped it would be completed within the next two weeks.
BBC journalists strike over local radio cuts
Journalists at the BBC have been “forced to strike” by proposed cuts to local radio, former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said. Mr McDonnell, secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) cross-party parliamentary group, was among those on a picket line outside Broadcasting House yesterday. The NUJ said about 1,000 journalists are expected to walk out across the day prompting disruption to the local TV and radio schedule in England.
Mr McDonnell said: “We’ve got to get across to the BBC itself just how important this is because as soon as you start undermining one of the foundations of public service broadcasting like this, the whole edifice of the BBC comes under challenge.”
US spy stabbed near GCHQ
A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and terrorism offences after a woman was stabbed near GCHQ. Gloucestershire Police said a 29-year-old suspect was arrested in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, following the incident outside a leisure centre on 9 March. The woman sustained serious injuries but remains in a stable condition in hospital, police said. According to reports by the Daily Mail, the unnamed victim is an “American spy on secondment to GCHQ”.
Man who murdered niece jailed for life
A man who murdered his niece and then dumped her carpetwrapped body with rubbish has been jailed for life. Mohammed Taroos Khan, 53, will serve a minimum of 25 years. He killed Somaiya Begum, 20, in an attack at her home in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on 25 June last year. Ms Begum had been living at the property with another of her uncles and her grandmother under the terms of a forced marriage protection order, following attempts by her father, Mohammed Yaseen Khan, to force her to marry a cousin from Pakistan “by threat of violence”, a jury heard.
Sentencing Khan to life in prison at Bradford Crown Court yesterday, Mr Justice Garnham said: “It is not possible to identify a motive for this dreadful attack by you on an innocent young woman. I decline to speculate on your motive and I reject the prosecution’s suggestion that I should treat this as any form of so-called honour killing.” Ms Begum’s father had subsequently fled to Pakistan using a one-way ticket.
Man charged after drive-by church shooting
A man has been charged in connection with a drive-by shooting outside a church that injured several people including a child in January. The Metropolitan Police said that two other men have also been arrested in connection with the attack. Alrico Nelson
Martin, 19 from Kilburn, was arrested on Tuesday. He was taken into custody and was charged yesterday with possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life and six counts of conspiracy to wound with intent.
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