Warning it’s ‘when and not if’ cliff road will go as solutions wanted

PEOPLE living on a precarious cliff road are growing increasingly fearful that if the town experiences more erosion their street could become compromised.

- by BRADLEY GERRARD

Common Lane, in Beer, heads up from the centre of the village following the cliff

(Martin Whitham)

Common Lane, in Beer, steeply snakes up a route that gets close to the cliff edge, and Councillor John Heath, who sits on the parish council as well as East Devon District Council, warned it was a case of “when and not if” the road will go.

“There are points when it is literally two feet from the edge of the cliff, and climate change is accelerating the degeneration of the cliff,” he said.

“We have had cliff falls here in Beer just recently, although not in the exact location of (Common Lane).”

Cllr Heath noted that photographs from roughly 80 years ago show a “considerable amount of overlap” of land between the road and the cliff edge - essentially “a lot more cliff than there is now.”

Efforts are now being made to find a solution about how to prolong the life of Common Lane, and a meeting was held on Saturday, February 21, in the town’s Mariners Hall.