Residents of Hemsby want more detail on coastal erosion "roll-back" plans
Local decision-makers have drawn up plans to set aside land where homes put at risk by coastal erosion can be moved to
Those living on the coastline in Hemsby are telling us they want more details on plans to "roll-back" homes affected by coastal erosion.
It's after local decision-makers drew up plans to set aside land, the size of just over one football pitch, where homes deemed at risk could be moved to.
"None of this has been gone into"
Simon Measures is the chair of Save Hemsby Coastline.
He told us about the detail they're after:
"Is the land going to be gifted if you hand over your house? Or are they going to help with the cost of dismantling these homes and moving them? Or is it a case of you've got a plot of land but you have to use their builder to build something similar to what you've already got? None of this has been gone into. All we've been told is, this is a plot of land where homes can be built.
"I've been to numerous resilience meetings, as they're called, with Great Yarmouth Borough Council and the Coastal Partnership East and at no point was this put forwards as a possible plan. We've didn't think it would be either as it was tried before in Happisburgh and it didn't work.
"Being picked apart one by one"
"The stress-levels are high. it's the uncertainty and not knowing if the next high-tide is the one where more people will have to move out.
"Only this morning, we saw another removal van turn up and more furniture come out. It's a sad sight to see and it feels like the community here is being picked apart one by one.
"One thing we're looking to do now is to move up some of the sand on the beach to the feet of the dunes, so if a high-tide comes that'll be eroded instead of the dunes themselves. It's called 're-profiling', unfortunately it's been mired by red tape currently."
The plans in full:
Yarmouth Road, which is around a mile away from the village's Seafront Road - The Marrams, has been earmarked.
The land is understood to hold 26 roll-back plots and be 1.2 hectares in size.
Background
In December last year, five properties had to be demolished due to the risk of them collapsing. With several more properties are expected to be lost by 2055.
It is estimated that Hemsby has lost 300m of its coastline since the 1970s.
Currently, homeowners are unable to claim compensation for the loss of private property to coastal erosion.
Great Yarmouth Council say this will help to address the loss of properties and provide an opportunity for those affected to be re-housed safely within the village.