Barry caravan park cliff landslip inquiry continues

Investigations will continue into how a landslip left 15 caravans teetering on the edge of a cliff in south Wales.

The owners of the Porthkerry Leisure Park near Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, will also resume their efforts to pull the caravans away from the cliff edge.

The rockfall happened at about 20:00 GMT on Monday. No-one was injured.

Vale of Glamorgan council said its officers would assess the current site risks and advise landowners of any remedial work needed.

Work began on Tuesday to move caravans away from the edge to another part of the site, which has 300 pitches in total.

Coastguards at Mumbles, Swansea confirmed a security guard at the park called on Monday evening to report coastal erosion.

The Barry coastguard team went to the scene and found that nobody was injured or in imminent danger.

The position of the erosion was marked and the incident handed over to the Vale of Glamorgan council.

'Washed away'

This photo shows the position of the caravans on Monday

Doug Davies, who owns a caravan further inland, told BBC Wales the landslip was about 10ft (3m) wide and 200 yards (180m) long.

"The front of the cliff has just fallen away. A crack has appeared and all the wind and the rain has got down behind it, and washed it all away," he said.

Caravan owner Edward Nicholls said the caravans were about 4m (13ft) away from the cliff edge before the landslip. There was a small path running between the "vans" and the edge.

Mr Nicholls described the gap as "quite an adequate distance".

Vale of Glamorgan assembly member Jane Hutt visited the site on Wednesday morning to see the situation there at first hand.

She said she was relieved no-one had been injured in the fall.

"I recognise how hard the Park Home owners have worked to move caravans since the landslide and I welcome the Vale council's review of the position of this beautiful part of the Heritage Coast," she said.

On Tuesday Vale of Glamorgan spokesman Miles Punter said that while the council had a role in monitoring the coastline in its area, the responsibility for protecting private land and property along the coastline lay with the relevant land or property owners.

And local MP Alun Cairns said he would be contacting the land owners, council and the Environment Agency to find out what remedial works might be needed to safeguard residents and the public who use the beach.