Flat Cliffs coastal erosion £500K plans 'will save community'

Sole access to Flat Cliffs is by one road through Primrose Valley holiday village

More than £500,000 will be spent shoring up the only access road to a small North Yorkshire cliff-top hamlet at risk of coastal erosion.

Scarborough Council approved the £572,000 Coast Protection grant for "urgent work" at Flat Cliffs near Filey.

The area is expected to suffer from severe coastal erosion over the next 20 years.

It is hoped the works will "buy more time" for residents, the council said.

Sole access to Flats Cliffs is by one road through Primrose Valley holiday village.

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The council said the planned works together with "soft engineering" defences could buy property owners more time

The council said the action, together with "soft engineering" defences at the foot of the cliff, meant the houses would not be lost until nearer 2037.

Without it the residents would be forced to leave imminently.

"If no intervention is taken, [coastal erosion] will lead to imminent loss of the sole access road to Flat Cliffs," the council said.

"This would in effect 'write-off' the coastal community with immediate effect, rather than in 20 years when the onset of direct property loss is expected."

The project, to be led by Scarborough Borough Council working with Flat Cliffs Residents' Association, Yorkshire Water, Natural England and the Environment Agency, will start immediately and is planned to be finished by next winter.

The large white Art Deco house was built by Billy Butlin, of Butlins holiday parks, and is now holiday flats