Cash alert for owners of homes on clifftop

Scarborough Council has secured more than 1m in funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to buy land for the house-holders at Knipe Point, near Filey, if their homes are lost.

The council was one of only 15 local authorities selected for the Pathfinder scheme to pilot new ways of dealing with coastal problems. However, one of the lessons learned is that bureaucracy and nature seldom work hand in glove.

The area suffered prolonged heavy rain in the run up to the landslip, but this year's warm summer has slowed the erosion.

Council head of technical services John Riby said: "Fortunately since the initial three properties were lost in April 2008, to date no further properties have been lost. However, the risk remains that those properties on the cliff edge will be lost, and the risk will increase during the forthcoming autumn and winter periods.

"Because payment under Pathfinder scheme is only triggered by the actual loss of property, the slowing of the headscarp retreat and the increased equilibrium state of the cliff edge has resulted in no home owners benefiting from the Pathfinder grant."

The Pathfinder project is only predicted to run until the end of March, and the scheme may be curtailed if no further properties are lost. "Residents would then have to continue their own adaptation without assistance from the Pathfinder grant," Mr Riby added.

Originally, residents were to be resettled on one site. But now the council has agreed to provide residents who want to live elsewhere with their own plot of land subject to a loss of property.

Councillors will vote on the proposed changes on Tuesday.