The owners of a seaside chalet that was torn down over the weekend after coastal erosion left it teetering on the edge of a cliff have criticised the authorities for failing to do more to save it.
The holiday home was one of three that were being bulldozed in Pakefield, near Lowestoft in Suffolk. A fourth was pulled down last year.
All had been there for decades but fell victim to the elements as storms and waves battered the sandy coastline.
Jacky Campling, 66, who watched her chalet get razed to the ground, said: ‘It was heartbreaking. We’ve had it for more than 20 years. It was my parents’ place before they died.
‘Nature is cruel. There could have been some intervention earlier on and we might not have been in this predicament.
The owners of a seaside chalet in Pakefield, near Lowestoft in Suffolk, that was torn down over the weekend after coastal erosion left it teetering on the edge of a cliff have criticised the authorities for failing to do more to save it
The holiday home was one of three that were being bulldozed in Pakefield, near Lowestoft in Suffolk. A fourth was pulled down last year
Nicola Taggart (pictured) co-owned the chalet with her sister Jacky Campling
The holiday homes had been there for decades but fell victim to the elements as storms and waves battered the sandy coastline
‘The government doesn’t seem to want to spend any money on this. It’s going to happen more and more around the country.’
Ms Campling, who lives in Taverham, near Norwich, and her sister Nicola Taggart, who co-owned the chalet, planned to spend more time there as their retirements approached.
She added: ‘We found paperwork that in 2007 there was a five-year plan and, if they’d done something at that point, maybe none of us would have lost the houses. It’s such a lovely place, it’s so sad.’
Describing the ‘painful’ decision to watch it being demolished by two bulldozers on Saturday, she said she wanted to ‘reflect on it all… enjoy the view and think of the lovely times we had here’.
The first of the four properties was torn down in February last year as it was closer to the cliff face.
Devastated owners Tim and Lorraine Revett, from Elmswell, near Stowmarket, flew a ‘white surrender flag’ from the front of The Rosary as the diggers moved in.
The first of the four properties was torn down in February last year as it was closer to the cliff face. Pictured are the chalets before they were torn down
Describing the ‘painful’ decision to watch it being demolished by two bulldozers on Saturday, Jacky Campling (not pictured) said she wanted to ‘reflect on it all… enjoy the view and think of the lovely times we had here’. Pictured: Bulldozers demolishing the chalets
A sign warned Parkfield residents of the ‘danger of cliff falls’ and advised against climbing
The site of three holiday chalets that had to be demolished after being deemed unsafe due to ongoing coastal erosion
Workers are pictured at the demolish site as the holiday chalets are torn down
Mr Revett said at the time: ‘We have had some great times here and many memories. It is very sad.
‘My mother-in-law bought the cottage in 2008 and we inherited it five years ago when she sadly died. It was going to be our retirement home. We have renovated it and done a lot of work.’
Temporary protection works were carried out in September 2021, when concrete slabs that had fallen from the nearby rifle range were repurposed as ‘defences’ at the base of the cliff.
In December last year, ten months after the Revetts’ chalet was demolished, 2,000 tonnes of rocks were delivered by sea barges to help protect the area.
Coastal Partnership East (CPE), the coastal management team for East Suffolk Council, North Norfolk District Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said the six-week project would help protect an important access road.
Without it, the elements ‘could affect more than 25 properties and have the potential to deposit significant quantities of material from the road onto the beach, causing issues of public safety’.
Pakefield chalets are demolished by construction workers as owners watch
CPE said it had been working with locals in Pakefield since 2016 to look at coastal management options. Pictured are Pakefield chalets before the demolition began
Successive storms – most recently last month’s Storm Babet – continued eating away at the coastline and CPE decreed the properties closest to the edge were still ‘in danger of being structurally undermined by shoreline degradation’. Pictured: A Pakefiled chalet that has since been torn down
Construction crews are hard at work as they demolish the chalets in Pakefield Holiday Park
The site of three holiday chalets that had to be demolished due to ongoing coastal erosion
But successive storms – most recently last month’s Storm Babet – continued eating away at the coastline and CPE decreed the properties closest to the edge were still ‘in danger of being structurally undermined by shoreline degradation’.
CPE said it had been working with locals in Pakefield since 2016 to look at coastal management options.
A spokesman added: ‘However, in 2019, Pakefield experienced a period of unprecedented erosion, leaving four clifftop properties at immediate risk.
‘We have been liaising with property owners since then regarding demolition.’