Holderness: 'Devastating news' as homes, caravans and farms at risk of falling into sea due to coastal erosion in Yorkshire

An updated Coastal Erosion Risk map, recently issued by the Environment Agency, uses local data to predict future rates of erosion.

It shows a number of homes, hundreds of acres of agricultural land and dozens of caravan pitches between Bridlington and Spurn Point forecast to be lost to the sea by 2055.

It also reveals the threat posed to the B1242, the main road that connects many towns and villages along Europe’s fastest eroding coastline.

The map shows the road to Hollym, south of Withernsea, being lost to the sea within three decades.

Further north at Mappleton, the cliff edge on the approach from Hornsea, is currently just 50 metres away from the B1242.

The map forecasts that the cliff edge will be right next to the road by 2055, if not earlier.

Council leader Anne Handley, who is standing as Conservative candidate for elected Mayor, did not respond to requests from the Yorkshire Post for an interview on the issue, but next Thursday she is putting a motion to East Riding Council calling for an urgent meeting with Defra minister Daniel Zeichner to discuss government support for affected communities in light of the predictions.

East Riding, along with the city of Hull, is due to receive devolved powers with elections planned in May for an elected Mayor. The new combined authority would receive a £400m investment fund, after the government announced on earlier this month that legislation had come into force formally establishing a new East Yorkshire and Hull Combined Authority.

East Riding Council’s latest estimate is that up to 15ft (4.5 metres) is crumbling away on average per year, although undefended areas can see much larger chunks of land of up to 65ft (20 metres) lost.

For decades now, so-called “shoreline management plans” have been in force. These dictate that only Bridlington, Hornsea and Withernsea, plus important infrastructure at Mappleton and Dimlington Gas Terminals are protected by sea defences.

The rest, mainly agricultural land, with a scattering of villages and hamlets, is designated as “no active intervention”, meaning nature is allowed to take its course.

Withernsea’s mayor Ian Blackburn believes a new road will have to be built inland as the sea will continue to outflank the town’s defences.

“If you want to keep Hollym, Holmpton, Easington and all the villages on that road, if they are going to have any chance of survival, you have to have a road,” he says. “But it’s just eroding so quickly.

“We are getting a new mayoral authority - roads and infrastructure will go to the Mayor and we will have to see what they plan.”

North Holderness councillor John Whittle said it had been an issue which had concerned him for years: “I feel it would be a good idea to start looking at the road sooner rather than later. Whatever we choose to do the cost will be huge and we will have to work with the government and the new mayoral authority.”

One potential solution would be to find an alternative route inland, although that could still cause issues - not least from villages resisting the idea of large volumes of traffic coming through.

Another issue is where the money would come from - the EU in the past supported sea defence projects.

Jim Warrington, 94, who came to Middle Farm in Mappleton 70 years ago, has been a parish councillor for 30 years.

In 1991 almost £2m was spent on two rock groynes and a rock revetment to protect Mappleton and the B1242.

Blocks of granite were imported from Norway for the defences. Groynes, which are built out to sea from the beach like a barrier, trap beach material and stop it from being transported away by longshore drift.

Mr Warrington has seen a bay form between the two hard points at Hornsea and Mappleton - just as consultants said it would.

And he thinks the sea will continue to scour out the land to the north of the village where the defences end leaving Mappleton a “little island”.

He complains that Beverley-based East Riding Council can’t see the bigger picture, but thinks they will “suddenly find out it will cost a heck of a lot to reroute the road.”

He added: “When we had Holderness Borough Council they were all for protecting the coast. You go to a council meeting at Beverley and half don’t know there’s a coastline.

“I despair of the council, to tell you the truth. We keep sending memos, but we get back ‘we have noted your concern’”.

Despite several requests, no one has been prepared to be interviewed from the council about coastal erosion.

Last month the council issued a statement saying officers would “put plans in place to help communities understand what the maps mean for them”.

The statement said nothing about the fate of the B1242 but that the council is “urging the government to provide more support and resources to enable the region to manage the transition”. MPs would be asked to lobby the government on the issue.

In a statement Councillor Handley said coastal erosion was an “accelerating risk” and was causing “significant concern”.

She said: “We recognise that not every home can be protected but it is essential that the government provide more support to protect areas where it is viable to do so. Coastal regions, and those who live there, must not be forgotten.”