Another house demolished on Norfolk's crumbling Hemsby coastline

  • Video report by ITV Anglia's Rob Setchell

A house on the Norfolk coastal village of Hemsby has been demolished - making it the fifth house to be torn down this week.

High tides and strong winds have left homes along the coastline at risk of falling into the sea.

Several of them have now been knocked down and one has been dragged back inland to prevent it being swept into the sea.

James Bond, who lives in Hemsby said he is worried how long his home has left.

He said: " It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible. There's nothing stopping the sea now.

"It'll come very quickly I think. I don't know how long we've got here."

Several of them have now been knocked down and one has been dragged back inland to prevent it being swept into the sea. Credit: ITV Anglia

Kenny Chaney's lived here all his life. A fisherman for 54 years, he's lost count of the homes he's seen swallowed by the sea. In 2012, he even helped rescue two schoolgirls after dunes collapsed on them. He says action should've been taken long ago to protect the vast beach he remembers. "It's devastating to me. I knew the beach when it was at its prime. I worked the beach all my life and I've seen it gradually eroded away.

"That's hard to me because that was my life down there.

"There ain't a day when I don't go on the beach and see it. And I think, well that's gone today. Another bit gone."

On Friday night an emergency meeting is taking place to discuss how best to lobby the government for proper defences. Lorna Bevan, the founder of the Save Hemsby Coastline said: "It's definitely too little too late for these homes - and for the people who lost them in 2018 and 2013.

"But it's not too late to protect the ones that are still in place. There are 92 homes at risk after this."

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