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Posted: 30-04-2013 23:10 Post subject:

Landslips have been much more frequent the last couple of years, but this is a biggie:

Dorset coast path collapse: 'Massive' cliff fall near Durdle Door

A section of the South West Coast Path in Dorset has been destroyed by a massive landslip.
Portland Coastguard said the cliff fall happened overnight at St Oswald's Bay, east of Durdle Door.
A coastguard spokesman said: "It is huge - a massive fall has taken out part of the cliff. It is rather extraordinary."

The path has been sealed off by council workers. People have been advised to keep clear of the affected area.
A spokesman for the Lulworth Estate which owns the land called it a "substantial" landslip.
Nick Kelly said the estate would co-operate with the county council in re-routing the coast path away from the area of the cliff fall.

He said cliffs along the Dorset coast were in a "fragile" state due to wet weather over the past 12 months, followed by recent dry conditions.
"Visitors should exercise awareness of their surroundings and pay attention to warning signs when walking near the cliffs," he added.

However the Maritime and Coastguard Agency Twitter account later posted a photograph of people still walking along the path, with the caption: "What do you think they are doing on the edge of a collapsed cliff? There's a reason we give advice."

Jurassic Coast manager Sam Rose said 20m (65ft) of the coast path had fallen away,
"The rock has fanned out on the beach so it looks rather spectacular. It is an unusually large fall for this area."

Earlier this month several landslips happened at nearby White Nothe and a section of cliff came down on Swanage beach just before Christmas.

Dr Simon Boxall of the University of Southampton described the latest landslip as "awesome" and said it was likely the fall happened "in one sudden go".
"It is a relief this didn't happen during a busy weekend. There would have been very little warning anything was going to happen.
"It's very difficult to predict where and when these landslips are going to happen," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-22355538

Posted: 08-06-2013 20:55 Post subject:

Moves to keep sight-seers away from Torquay cliff house

Safety measures are being planned to prevent people getting into a house falling into the sea, police say.
Part of Ridgemont House on Redcliffe Road in Torquay collapsed in February. It had become an attraction while awaiting demolition, residents added.
Devon and Cornwall Police said they were working with Torbay Council to secure the property.

People should also not climb up earth which fell on to Oddicombe beach below because it was unsafe, officers added.

Ridgemont House, in one of the most expensive areas of Torquay, has been uninhabitable for some time.
It used to have a large cliff-facing garden which started to erode away in 2010.

Thousands of tonnes of earth and stone later fell on to Oddicombe beach in April and a section of the beach was closed as a result.
Local resident Lindsay Rogers said there had been a noticeable amount of people coming to see the landslip and house.
He said: "People are up and down the road. They're up, turn round and come down again.
"We're quite fed up with it. We just want to get the house demolished and return to the nice quiet cul-de-sac that we were."

Safety measures to secure the property include erecting a fence to prevent access to the end of the cul-de-sac.
PCSO James Milton, from Devon and Cornwall Police, said people should not try to access Ridgemont House or the adjoining properties.
He said: "We're working with the council to have the site secured as best as possible.
"And, with the beach at the bottom, we've had people rock climbing up the landslide.
"They shouldn't do that as that [earth and rock ] is probably still going to move."

Officers have also been dealing with reports that people have been trying to remove copper piping from the site, police said. Rolling Eyes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-22823019

Posted: 12-07-2013 09:06 Post subject:

And just next door...

£33,500 for uninhabitable cliff house in Torquay

A cliff-top house in Torquay, which has been deemed officially uninhabitable, has sold at an auction for £33,500.
Torr Cottage had a starting price of £25,000 - even though it would normally sell for around £400,000.

The property which was described as being in immaculate condition, sits on land which is prone to landslips.
Nearby Ridgemont House featured in national newspapers and on television because part of it has collapsed because of a landslip.

Torr Cottage is yards from the edge of Oddicombe Cliffs in Torquay.
Torquay Council's prohibition order means it will not allow occupation until a structural work is carried out to make it safe.

Chris Hodgkinson of estate agents House Buyer Bureau, said: "We are very pleased with how the auction went.
"We have yet to find out who has bought Tor Cottage, but the property does have potential for the right investor.
"There is clearly a degree of risk involved, but Tor Cottage and the land still may have potential as an investment opportunity."

The home's previous owner, who declined to comment, had been renting it out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-23273660

Posted: 01-08-2013 22:31 Post subject:

Fairlight village: Losing the battle against the sea
By Tanya Gupta, BBC News

Villagers in East Sussex who fought to protect their homes on the cliff edge are calling for more defences after losing more land to the sea.
Fairlight has seen two coast protection schemes in the past decades to slow down cliff erosion. They include two rocky barriers in the sea at the foot of the cliffs.
But now, in the gap between the two berms, the shingle has disappeared and each high tide removes more sand - creating space for more land to fall.

One resident, Jim Saphin, lost 19ft (6m) of garden in the past winter and the Fairlight Preservation Trust now wants Rother District Council to consider a third defence to plug the gap and protect the village.
But Rother councillor Robin Patten, who also sits on Fairlight parish council, said the work could cost anything between £3m and £10m.
"Money is limited. This funding can only come from central government. Rother has not got the money required and neither have the county," he said.

Adding that the 3,000-strong Fairlight population had to compete with areas like Scarborough and Norfolk, he said: "We did extremely well to get the last defence."

Six houses were lost on Sea Road in the late 1980s and early 1990s after the road was breached, and before that a row of cottages also went.

Villagers have said the next road to be breached will be Rockmead Road, which is already lined with demolition sites where houses once stood.
The last Fairlight defence scheme which was to protect Rockmead Road and cost £4.3m included construction of one of the berms, cliff re-profiling (reshaping) and surface drainage, and a system of deep boreholes connected to a pump house to drain water from within the ground.

But Paul Capps, secretary of the preservation trust, said: "The pump house is 22ft (7m) from the edge. It was 32ft (10m), but in the past year we have lost 6.5ft (2m). If it continues at that rate the pump house will not be working within three or four years and £4.3m will be a total waste of money." Shocked

Mr Patten said: "The major problem with Fairlight now is not so much cliff fall but 'toe erosion', which is when the sand gets washed away and leaves room for the next bit to fall.
"I think to protect the toe of the cliff might help. It would remain a drama as opposed to a potential catastrophe."

He said: "It [the pump house] was in a good place at the time. But that's what it is living on the cliff edge. You think this is lovely until such time as you fall in. Cliff fall is inexorable. Cliff fall will happen."

But on top of the cliffs at Fairlight, Dr John Sinclair's house now stands 35 yards (32m) from the edge.
When he bought the house 20 years ago, it stood 160 yards (146m) from the cliff.
He said he sought assurances about erosion from Rother council before he bought the property and was told it would be there for another 400 years.
Dr Sinclair and his wife, Kathy, received a letter in 2003 warning them their house was likely to topple by 2005.

They moved their antiques and jewellery to their daughter's home in Hastings, where their valuables have remained.
For a time, the Sinclairs had no insurance. Now their home is covered for rebuilding costs but not land value.
Dr Sinclair, who has spent his retirement campaigning for Fairlight defences, said: "I am realistic. I am over 80."
But he said if he had known what lay ahead, he would never have bought the house. "It's been a long battle," he said.

Mr Patten, whose cottage sits below the sea wall at Pett Level, about a mile from Fairlight, said: "Fairlight is a fantastic community."
He said: "I do have every sympathy because of where I live. I am aware of what problems the sea can do to you. But you live with it."
A hundred years ago, before any defences were built, water would flow through his old coastguard's cottage at Pett Level at high tide.

A sea wall was later built with broom fences to hold the shingle beach in place, and that was recently replaced by Environment Agency defences costing £10m.

Mr Patten said there was no doubt sea levels were rising, but he had never worried about the sea overtopping defences in the 40 years he had lived there.
He said: "You do have a much more fatalistic, realistic point of view living by the sea.
"When you go swimming you never fight it, you go with it. It's the same thing living here. Don't argue with the sea. You will never win."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-23511513