Residents in Thorpeness say new emergency sea defences can be repositioned if erosion worsens
Rock bags have now been installed, with more expected
Residents in a Suffolk coastal village say more homes could be lost “at any time” as they race to install emergency defences along the shoreline.
Thorpeness has seen dramatic erosion in recent months, with large sections of coastline disappearing and several properties already demolished. Other homes remain at risk as the sea continues to cut into the land.
In response, residents, engineers and the council have come together to deliver a temporary defence using large rock-filled bags placed along the coast.
Previous discussions have raised concerns about how any kind of sea defences would be funded, but due to both private and public funding from residents and the council, the first few rock bags have now been put in place.
The scheme is expected to cost around half a million pounds in total, with around £270,000 raised by the community and further funding expected from East Suffolk Council.
"We're stronger together"
Roger Hawkins, an architect and member of the Thorpeness Community Interest Company (CIC), said the scale of the crisis had brought people together.
“We’re stronger together. Everybody has to work together,” he said.
The CIC has been set up as a community-led organisation to coordinate the response and support residents affected by the erosion, with a focus on protecting the village in both the short and long term.
Mr Hawkins said it had been created “as a legitimate and properly organised business, but solely for community benefit… for people who live in the village, who want to work together to help protect the village.”
The rock bags are being used as an immediate measure to slow erosion and buy time, with protection expected to last between two and five years.
However, Mr Hawkins warned the coastline remains highly unpredictable.
“We could get a big event at any time and it could take more homes away,” he said.
One of the key advantages of the approach is its flexibility.
“The benefit of the rock bags… is you can reposition them,” he said. “If we get storm events that cause more damage, you can roll back the alignment.”
He added the investment would also contribute to any future, more permanent sea defences.
“This expenditure… is not wasted money because if we can get the funding for the rock revetment, the rock bags themselves can be a part of the base,” he said.
Mr Hawkins said any coastal protection must be carefully coordinated to avoid causing further problems along the shoreline.
“You have to have a continuous line of coastal defences,” he said. “If someone puts any coastal protection works… it’ll fail either side.”
He added: “You need to be really mindful about how those coastal protection works affect the drift of material up and down the coast.”
Long term solutions
Alongside the immediate response, the community is also looking at longer-term solutions, including how future coastal protection could be funded.
"We're going to set up a charity so that people can perhaps look at gift aid. We've done a bit of research into what a charity might offer. There are only, we believe, 4 charities in the country that are set up to orchestrate coastal defences like this.
"So we're going to be forming a charity that will hopefully allow people to make charitable giving, and then it's a PR campaign around that, because we've got to demonstrate how this, this, these urgent works can then be the first part of a bigger project"
The CIC is expected to play a key role in that work, acting on behalf of residents and helping to secure investment for more permanent defences.
"It's potentially a 10, 12 million pound project that we are going to take two or three years to get organised and that will have to go through the full design process. It will be something that needs to have a planning mission and an environmental impact assessment.
"It's never really been done at this scale before, so we want to make an approach to the Environment Agency about whether we could be seen as a pilot project for managed realignment. We're ambitious, but we're at the same time very humble and working with the community to demonstrate what's possible"
Despite the ongoing crisis, Mr Hawkins said Thorpeness remains a place people care deeply about.
“It’s a place I’ve enjoyed going to for many years… to rest and relax, wind down,” he said.
However, he urged visitors to stay away in the short term while the area is made safe.
“I would encourage people to come and visit Thorpeness… but I might ask you to perhaps wait a few weeks until we’ve made the beach safer,” he said.
“If people have lost their homes… it’s a very sad place.”
He added: “Put it in your diary to visit Thorpeness in the summer.”