Happisburgh mum fears home could soon be lost to the sea

Recent storms Babet and Cairan have made the lives of locals living precariously on the edge of Happisburgh’s crumbling cliffs even more perilous - eroding the village's coastline by around six metres in as many weeks.

Nicola Bayless, who lives on Beach Road – a road which now falls off the cliff edge and into the sea – says her home could be next.

Happisburgh resident Nicola Bayless (Image: Adam Barker)

Mrs Bayless, who moved into her home in 2004, said: “I think it could be my last Christmas here. 

“Realistically, I’ve got a year, maybe two. We haven’t even got through the winter yet.

“If someone told me when I moved in that I’d be sat here today nearly 20 years later as the next to go I’d have laughed.

“It’s a beautiful place to live. It’s just a shame it’s disappearing.”

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Nicola Bayless outside her Beach Road home, which is creeping closer to the cliff edge at Happisburgh (Image: Adam Barker)

Mrs Bayless’ parents, Arthur and Anita Richmond, bought the three-bedroom semi-detached property in the “village they fell in love with” back in 2001.

Both have since died and Mrs Bayless now owns the property outright having paid off her mortgage.

But although the house was last valued at £125,000 in 2019, she says it is now “worthless”.

The crumbling cliffs at Happisburgh (Image: Adam Barker)

Mrs Bayless, who lives with her partner and two children, said: “I’ve got a lot to lose.

“My mum and dad would be absolutely shocked if they could see it now. They left this house to me thinking it would see both me and their grandchildren out.

“It’s a community that’s disappearing.”

Beach Road now falls into the sea (Image: Adam Barker)

She lives in hope that North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) can relocate her to a safe home further inland.

Low-level coastal defences were constructed along the north Norfolk coast between the 1950s and 70s. They were only designed with a lifespan of 20 to 30 years, and by 2009 the defences were in a state of decay.

The government never planned to renew them.

Happisburgh cliffs are also part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), meaning the landscape is a protected natural environment requiring permission to build any new defences.

An aerial view of the erosion at the end of Beach Road, Happisburgh (Image: Nicola Bayless)

In 2009, the council received £3 million from the government’s UK Coastal Change Pathfinder programme, which it used to buy nine at-risk properties on Beach Road, paying owners the market value of their homes before demolishing them as part of a ‘rollback’ strategy.

The clifftop carpark was also pushed back, and the public toilets - which were claimed by the sea - were rebuilt.

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Malcolm Kerby, 82, founded Happisburgh’s Coastal Concern Action Group (CCAG) in 1999. The group worked with NNDC to deliver the Pathfinder project.

“When we finished the Pathfinder in 2012, we bought the nine properties and created a buffer zone,” he said.

“We said that would last us at least 20 years but in half that time it’s almost at the stage we thought it would be at.

“The rate of erosion in Happisburgh is happening at double its projected speed.”

Malcolm Kerby, 82, founded Happisburgh’s Coastal Concern Action Group (CCAG) in 1999 - pictured here in 2008 (Image: Karen Bethell)

Now, more than a decade on, Happisburgh Parish Council plans to rollback the car park once more to a site currently used as agricultural land behind houses on Beach Road.

The 3.2-acre site would be accessed via a track off Lighthouse Lane, but plans were recently delayed after some 25 people wrote letters of objection and almost 100 signed a petition against the proposals over fears it could cause “traffic chaos” for residents.

Earlier this year, NNDC launched Coastwise – a government-funded scheme aimed at bracing coastal communities for the effects of climate change.

The £15 million initiative will not provide compensation for homes lost to erosion or build sea defences, but instead relocate buildings and replace damaged facilities such as beach access pathways.

An aerial view of the erosion at the end of Beach Road, Happisburgh (Image: Nicola Bayless)

A similar scheme is taking place in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and together they form a Coastal Transition Acceleration Plan (CTAP), which the government has put £36m towards, to be used before March 2027.

Over the next 100 years, it is predicted that over 1,000 homes will be lost to erosion in north Norfolk.