Woman, 88, facing loss of clifftop home to sea ‘told nothing will be done’

A pensioner whose clifftop home faces being lost to the sea said she has been told nothing will be done to save it and is now looking at demolition.

Jean Flick, 88, who has lived at the seaside property in Thorpeness, Suffolk for 25 years, said she hopes to stay as long as it is safe to do so.

“I’m just waiting in hope there’s no high tides,” said the widow, who is from a farming family.

“We had a hell of a good storm the other night but we’re still standing.”

Another home in her street was demolished in 2022 but Ms Flick had hoped it may be possible to build defences at the foot of the cliffs to slow the coastal erosion.

But she said on Friday: “We were more or less told nothing will be done and we can’t do anything.

“We’ve had the chap round to look at the demolition, and… he says we’re more or less at the end.

“It’s a case of wait and see, hope the tides are not high and they’ll review it again in the new year.”

She said she had been told that machinery needed to build sea defences would not be able to access the foot of the cliffs.

“It’s the fact they can’t get along basically I think to get to it,” said Ms Flick.

“They’ve got to come in down the bottom end and they can’t get along with the machinery.

“One of the things they’re saying is the machinery, the heavy machinery will damage the land coming up and they’re not happy with that so we’re more or less on our own and wait for the inevitable.”

Asked if she hoped to stay as long as she was safely able to, she said: “Yes, that’s what I’m hoping.”

She said that another section of land had fallen away in recent weeks.

She added: “You might see me in a caravan or a tent up on the common.”

Ms Flick remarried in 1999 after the death of her first husband from cancer and later bought the home in Thorpeness with her second husband for a fresh start.

She said they were “very happy” there before her second husband also died of cancer.

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.

She said her “heart will just break” if that happens “because it’s my home”.

“Your home is gone and it’s just devastating really,” she said.

The house was built in 1928 and had five bedrooms, now four after one was turned into a sitting room for the sea view.

The property is around two miles south of Sizewell, where a new nuclear power station is being built.

Ms Flick said that Storm Babet in 2023 “really ravaged” the cliffs.

The policy in the Shoreline Management Plan, developed by agencies including the Environment Agency and the local authority, for the stretch of coast is of managed realignment.

This means measures might be allowed that slow, but do not stop, the erosion.

An East Suffolk Council spokesperson said: “East Suffolk Council’s building control team has met with the owner of the property to discuss a plan, to avoid emergency evacuations where possible, should critical safety levels be reached.

“We want to allow occupiers the longest possible time in their property, while prioritising safety.

“The point at which they may be required to vacate on safety grounds depends on factors including practicalities of access for safe property removal.

“Although contractors are unable to safely carry out works during the short tidal windows this autumn, plans for a short-term intervention will be reviewed in the spring, depending on post-winter conditions.”