
The council hopes to ‘buy some time’ for residents living at Flat Cliffs near Filey before coastal erosion forces them to leave their properties.
As the properties at Flat Cliffs become “at imminent risk of loss” from coastal erosion, North Yorkshire Council (NYC) is hoping to deliver a coastal adaptation plan for the cliff-top hamlet.
A meeting on Friday, March 28, will decide whether the council should apply for £90,000 from the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC) to produce a plan.
The council is responsible for managing coastal change in its area with a shoreline management plan which previously recommended ‘limited intervention prior to coastal adaptation’.
The solution would be “a temporary one intended to ‘buy some time’ to allow the residents of the 45 homes and Yorkshire Water to plan for adapting to coastal change and implement the necessary relocation and removal activities to withdraw themselves and their assets from the areas at risk”.
The £90,000 would primarily be used to raise awareness of the coastal risks within the affected community and support residents and affected parties in planning for change.
In 2017, the now-defunct Scarborough Borough Council approved a £572,000 Coast Protection grant for “urgent work” at Flat Cliffs which it also said would “buy more time” for residents.
Subsequently, a project was completed in 2018 to provide local management measures at the pinch point where the sole access road, which runs through Primrose Valley holiday village, was at risk of imminent loss.
The works were intended to “prolong the duration before its loss, whilst acknowledging that recession processes would continue”.
Officers have said that if the funding is not sought or the application is rejected, residents would be “unprepared for the loss of properties creating difficulties for the authority to manage the process when the time comes for residents to have to leave”.
They added that there would be a “significant mental health burden for residents becoming suddenly aware of the risks in an emergency situation, and with no forward plan for dealing with the risks, residents may be left feeling unsupported and isolated”.
The funding would be sought from the Yorkshire RFCC which raises a local levy on lead local flood authorities, including North Yorkshire Council and “provides an invaluable resource to help fund local flood and coast priorities”, according to a report.
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