A coastal clifftop car park which opened just over a decade ago could close within weeks as it is now in serious danger of falling into the sea.
Happisburgh’s Beach Road car park opened in 2012 after being retreated further inland away from the crumbling cliffs as part of a £3 million scheme.
But the rate of erosion at Happisburgh has happened at twice the speed projected, and access to the car park via Beach Road could be cut off by the sea at any moment.
During storms Babet and Cairan around six metres of the coastline was lost in as many weeks.
Jo Beardshaw, parish clerk and financial officer at Happisburgh Parish Council, which leases the car park from North Norfolk District Council, said: “We could lose access to the car park as soon as tomorrow, next week, or in the coming months.”
The car park is the parish council’s biggest earner and if it were to close today the council could lose out on around £3,500 in December alone, based on takings in previous years.
The council now plans to roll back the car park once more to a site behind houses on Beach Road.
The 3.2-acre site, located on agricultural land behind the current car park, would be accessed via a new track off Lighthouse Lane.
However, the plans have been delayed until January next year by North Norfolk District Council’s (NNDC) planning committee after objections from locals who fear it could cause “traffic chaos” for residents in the village.
The council now hopes to be granted permission in the new year to build the access road off Lighthouse Lane which will temporarily still lead to the existing car park in anticipation of Beach Road being cut off.
Nicola Bayless, whose home in Beach Road is next in line to be lost to the sea, fears the closure of the car park could cause parking “chaos”.
“People already try and get away with not parking on the car park and parking for free on Beach Road right outside my house,” she said.
“We get it all the time and sometimes I’ve been stuck on my drive when cars park opposite.
“It will be chaos with people parking on Beach Road.
READ MORE: 'This could be my last Christmas here!' - Happisburgh mum's fears for home as cliffs crumble
“But residents also don’t want extra roads going down the back of their houses.
“I can’t believe how quickly the road is disappearing. I don’t want to be here until my house falls off the edge, scrambling to gather my belongings off the edge of the cliff.
“I believe I’ll be out by next year because of the rate it’s going and we haven’t even got into winter yet. It’s getting frightening.”
Low-level coastal defences were constructed along the north Norfolk coast, including at Happisburgh, between the 1950s and 70s.
They were only designed to last 20 to 30 years, and by 2009 the defences were in a state of decay - with the government never planning to renew them.
Happisburgh’s 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.
In 2009, NNDC 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 car park was also moved back, and the public toilets - which were claimed by the sea - were rebuilt.
Malcolm Kerby, 82, was a founding member of 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.
"It is of paramount importance that the car park is moved - if not it will be total chaos for everybody in the village. People already leave their cars parked in the most ridiculous places so it will be mayhem.
"We need to overcome these ridiculous objections and get it done immediately because it’s already too late.
"Sometimes in this life, you have to consider the greater good, and that for the village is to move it now.
"To the district councillors who object, get off your backsides and get it done because it’s what we need."
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