Last man living on eroding clifftop says council is cutting him off - Norfolk

From the Guardian

When the spring tides arrived, Nigel Cutting was woken at night by what felt like an earthquake. The waves had torn away another huge chunk of cliff. As a result, Cutting has a view to die for – with his living-room window 10 metres from the cliff edge, he could be washed into the sea any day now.

Bulldozers began the demolition of homes clinging to the coastline at Happisburgh, Norfolk, last week after the local council bought homes deemed worthless because of the likelihood they would be swallowed by the sea. Nine houses were purchased, with owners receiving 40% of their ordinary market value, which was a lifeline for many.

But one man – Cutting, who is a Traveller – was never given the chance to sell his property through the government's Coastal Change Pathfinder scheme. The 41-year-old car mechanic and haulier is now the only person left living on the edge of Happisburgh's precipice. "It's nice living near the sea but you don't want to live in it," he said.

Cutting, who was born in Norfolk, says he bought his plot in 1991 when it was more than 30 metres from the cliff edge. After rapid erosion, he has retreated to the remaining fragment, on the edge of an abandoned private road. "Perhaps I could build myself a pier," he joked, looking down at the beach.

According to North Norfolk district council, Cutting cannot sell his land to them because it no longer exists.

Under the pathfinder scheme, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) awarded £11m to 15 coastal local authorities to help people cope with erosion. The council is demolishing the houses it bought in Happisburgh as part of a managed retreat from the sea, building a new car park for tourists and relocating a caravan park for holidaymakers.

While the scheme is nearly complete, hundreds of Travellers who bought erosion-threatened land because it was cheap could still benefit from the government's Coastal Communities Fund, launched last year.

But Cutting has missed out. He is now worried that if the sea doesn't destroy his home then vibrations from the demolition work could trigger further landslides that would. Perched on the exposed cliff, his caravan shakes so much when the wind blows that his TV falls off its stand. From this distance, the breaking waves are not soothing. "When you hear a thud or a bang it makes you wonder what you've lost," he said.

Cutting says he has lived in his clifftop caravan – with two tidy containers as his workshop – for more than 10 years, giving him the legal right to reside there even without planning permission.

But the council says Cutting did not pay council tax on his property until last autumn and only recently submitted paperwork "suggesting" he was the owner of 66 Beach Road, Happisburgh. "This parcel of land was lost to erosion some years ago and doesn't therefore now exist. Nigel Cutting has not lived at this location for 10 years," the council said in a statement. According to the council, its purchase offers were made on the basis of land that existed in September 2008.

"We don't believe that the council has any obligation to recognise Nigel Cutting's claim under the pathfinder programme as the land in which he had an interest was lost to the sea prior to September 2008," the council said. "The council has now closed down the pathfinder programme and therefore we cannot see any prospect of Nigel Cutting being made an offer of financial assistance under the programme."

Candy Sheridan, a planning expert at the Gypsy Council and a former North Norfolk councillor, said Cutting was overlooked because, unable to read and write, he had never lodged his deeds with the Land Registry. "It's not about him being a Gypsy – he's a human being living on a cliff," she said. "The council know he is here and they won't stop the demolition work. Everyone else has been offered alternative accommodation. They are hoping he'll just disappear."

Asked about the risk of demolition work increasing the danger of further erosion near Cutting's caravan, the council said it would encourage him to relocate, and could provide him with temporary accommodation on two Traveller sites in the district.

Cutting, who owns a house in nearby Walcott but says it is a long-term rental property, wants to live in a caravan in accordance with his cultural traditions in the area – where people know him and he feels safe. "It's my lifestyle. They [the council] are trying to change my lifestyle just because they don't like what they see sometimes," he said. "They are hoping I'll just fall off the edge."