An 88-year-old widow fears the clifftop home where she has lived for 25 years could fall off a cliff due to coastal erosion, as she and her neighbours battle to save their £1 million homes.
Jean Flick remarried in 1999 after the death of her first husband from cancer and later bought the seaside property in Thorpeness, Suffolk, with her second husband for a fresh start.
She said they were ‘very happy’ in their coastal home before her second husband tragically also died of cancer.
Ms Flick said coastal erosion has worsened in recent years, with a section of her garden wall dropping to the beach below earlier this year.
Another home in her street was demolished in 2022, and Ms Flick fears she could lose her home too.
She and her daughter Frances Paul, who lives nearby, are trying to secure planning permission for rock-filled cages called gabions to be placed at the foot of the cliffs to slow the erosion along with their neighbours.
This would be a self-funded project, after previous defences were washed away.
Ms Flick said she has been told that if the cliff edge gets to within five metres of the house, the property will have to be demolished.
Jean Flick, 88 (left, pictured with daughter Frances, 60) fears her home may face demolition as coastal erosion in Thorpeness, Suffolk worsens
If the edge of the cliff comes within five metres of the property, it will have to be demolished, local authorities have warned
Jean Flick pictured with her late second husband on the beach below their beloved home in 2013
‘If nothing is done, if it comes within five metres of the house it will be pulled down,’ she said.
‘No compensation, we have to pay for it to be pulled down and my heart will just break because it’s my home.
‘I know a lot of people have this problem (on) the coast and I sympathise with them because until it happens to you, you don’t realise the emotion that goes into the fact you’re going to lose your home.
‘Without any compensation, where do you buy a house with nothing?
‘Your home is gone and it’s just devastating really.’
The house was built in 1928 and had five bedrooms, now four after one was turned into a sitting room for the sea view.
‘I just absolutely love it,’ said Ms Flick, who is from a farming family.
‘It’s my home, I know the people, it’s a village, we have lots of things going on in the village.’
Earlier this year, erosion caused a large chunk of Ms Flick’s garden wall to tumble off the cliff and onto the beach below (pictured)
The sheer cliff has slowly been crumbling away for years, residents say
Attempts have been made to shore up the sandy cliffs to protect more than a dozen properties from the waves
The local Shoreline Management Plan means defences can be put in place to slow, but not stop, erosion
The local council recently launched a survey to decide how to help the worried residents decide what to do – and to prepare the tiny community for the worst
Ms Flick said that Storm Babet in 2023 ‘really ravaged’ the cliffs.
‘It really came with full force and I think that weakened the whole system along because it is sandy and there’s no way of making sand stay still. Sand erodes,’ she said.
The local Shoreline Management Plan – developed by agencies including the Environment Agency and the local authority – for the stretch of coast she lives on is of managed realignment.
This means measures might be allowed that slow – but do not stop – the erosion.
Last week it was reported that drones are now being used to monitor the crumbling cliffs amid fears that up to a dozen homes may face demolition.
‘We’re working with the council and all the other people who are involved in it but it’s a job getting them all to meet together and agree together,’ said Ms Flick.
‘We would have liked to have carried on with rocks as our next door neighbour has but we’re not allowed that.’
She said it was a ‘case now of getting paperwork signed which seems to be taking ages’ before they could get permission for gabion defences.
Ms Flick said that Storm Babet in 2023 ‘really ravaged’ the cliffs, significantly speeding up erosion
It is feared up to a dozen properties may soon need to be demolished, with owners being left without compensation
Signs on the beaches in the area warn visitors of the scale of the problem
Richard Moore, a director at Ipswich Town FC at the time, and his wife Sheila were told by council officials their £2 million, which had spectacular views over the North Sea, was dangerous to live in and it was demolished in 2022
Coastal erosion in the up-market seaside village of Thorpeness in Suffolk is getting worse by the day
‘It’s very urgent because most days you see another little bit gone,’ Ms Flick said.
‘It’s the erosion coming underneath that brings the top down. My wall that was there is now on the beach.’
She continued: ‘You just don’t know. When I draw the curtains in the morning it can be there, when I draw them the next morning another piece can be gone.’
Her daughter Ms Paul, a retired retail worker, said: ‘Even the low tides now are quite high.’
She said that as they would need to fund defences themselves, if permission were granted it would then be ‘a question of what’s it going to cost, is it possible’.
The changes to the scenery have already started taking effect in 2022 when a couple had to demolish their £2million home.
Richard Moore, a director at Ipswich Town FC at the time, and his wife Sheila were told by council officials it was unsafe to live in.
The power of the waves has washed away at least 50ft of their back garden in the last 20 months, leaving it just 30ft from the edge of the cliff.
The house, which has spectacular views over the North Sea would have been worth around £2 million if it were not for erosion but it is now worthless.
It is was the first major property in the upmarket village to be effectively lost to the sea since the East Coast floods of 1953.
An East Suffolk Council spokesperson said: ‘Our key priority is to keep people safe while managing a rapidly eroding coastline at Thorpeness.
‘We are supporting affected residents to explore potential temporary, short-term interventions that could be applied within an achievable timescale while plans are explored for any possible longer-term solutions.
‘We have been working closely with the community for a number of years and due to recent accelerated rates of erosion the options available are now quite limited.’
Defences must accord with the Shoreline Management Plan policy of managed realignment and would only be permitted to slow erosion, the spokesperson said.
‘Therefore, it is important to consider alternatives to hard defences, to adapt and become more resilient to the risks of climate change and sea level rise.’
The village of Thorpeness was developed as a fantasy holiday resort by a wealthy friend of Peter Pan author JM Barrie.
Scottish playwright and barrister Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie had inherited an estate there in 1908, and Thorpeness was officially opened in 1913.
Thorpeness, with its large artificial boating lake and Peter Pan-inspired islands, is the earlier of two complete planned resort villages in Britain built before the advent of holiday camps such as Butlin’s.
The other is Portmeirion in North Wales, designed by Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975.