Removing rocks to save street will cost £500k

A Suffolk village could slow down coastal erosion if £500,000 was spent to remove its defences, a report said.

Rocks were installed on the beach in front of a house at the northern end of Thorpeness in 2021 as an emergency intervention against the eroding cliffs.

But East Suffolk Council's cabinet will discuss proposals to remove the rocks on Tuesday after an engineering report found that sediment was being trapped on the rocks rather than naturally moving onto the beach.

The village is facing an erosion crisis, with the beach along North End Avenue losing between 25m and 30m of land in the past year.

Eleven homes have been demolished this year alone, prompting some residents to fund their own coastal barriers, which are different to the ones installed in 2021.

Engineering consultants Moffat and Nichol were commissioned by the council and found that the negative impacts of keeping the rocks that were installed in 2021 would be "far greater, the longer the rock remains in place", reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

It warned North End Avenue "will be lost", with the potential for the road to be inaccessible as early as the end of this summer.

Councillors are now being asked to spend up to £500,000 to remove the rocks and stockpile them locally for use in time for the winter season.

In the meantime, it will also look at options for moving the defences to a better location, with the potential for community-led projects coming forward, should they receive the necessary funding and permissions by August.

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