Hemsby: More land lost as high tide hits brittle Marrams

More of the concrete roadway at The Marrams in Hemsby has succumbed to the high tide

A spring high tide has caused more land along a vulnerable coastline to collapse into the sea and causing a water main to burst.

More concrete roadway at The Marrams at Hemsby, Norfolk, also collapsed, while other sections have been further undermined by the erosion.

Barrels used to stop the dunes collapsing onto the road have now gone over the edge.

A lifeboatman worked to reconnect properties that had lost water supply.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council had warned that the high tide on Wednesday was likely to cause more land to be lost.

Barrels that once protected the road from drifting sand now lie halfway down the cliff face

Dan Hurd, the coxswain of Hemsby Lifeboat, said he was out late on Wednesday night repairing the burst water main to reconnect properties that lost their supply.

"The south end of the water main had completely broken but lucky enough I had a stop cap which I could cut and fit on which kept the supply near the lifeboat shed connected to water," he said.

"But how long this is going to last; we seem to be fixing these things weekly now and is it maintainable? At this end, definitely not."

Kenny Chaney, a 78-year-old fisherman who has worked the coast since he was a teenager, forecast more severe damage over the winter.

"The sea is relentless," he said.

"We've had one or two half decent tides but not a big tide yet and if you got a big tide I can't see anything of this lot [remaining two houses and roadway] surviving.

"There's nothing that can be done to stop it. They lost their chance. They should have put the rock berm along while they had the chance but the money wasn't there."

Concrete blocks deemed unsafe by the council have been dismantled by contractors.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council contracted Anglian Demolition to carry out work to remove five houses from the dunes at the weekend.

The contractors also dismantled a wall of concrete blocks that the authority had deemed unsafe.

'Firing line'

Mr Hurd said: "Hands down to the council. If they hadn't had these machines in and Anglian Demolition doing this job last week I would imagine these properties would have been on the beach.

"At least they've stopped that impact and they've stopped stuff going onto the beach, which is great.

"But there are more properties along here now and I've pre-warned them that you're now looking at Fakes Road which is further back. [They are] Bricks and mortar. There's a lot of money up there and they're in the firing line and it's not looking great for them."

In a statement, a borough council spokesperson said: "The decision to demolish the buildings last weekend was taken as there was a risk that the buildings could have fallen on to the beach due to the imminent risk of the cliff collapsing further."

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