It is a cold and bleak day here. There are lots of towns and villages
around the world that once existed, but have been lost to the sea
or under floodwaters. But here, on the south-east coast of Britain, there's a village that's still around
but won't be for too long. Up behind those cliffs is Covehithe. It's a picturesque little village. There's the ruins of a church
more than 600 years old, with a more recent church built inside. And by more recent, I mean the little church
is only 400 years old. There's farmland, a few houses,
a couple of dozen residents. This has been a settlement for least
a thousand years, possibly more. And it'll be gone by the end of the century. You can see on old maps just how much land
has already been lost to the sea. The cliffs here get eroded a little bit
with every high tide, steadily being pushed
back and back and back. There are warning signs to stop
people from walking on top, because the ground near the edge
will be loose and could fall with just a little bit
of pressure from above. And this has been happening
for centuries. It can't go on forever:
at some point, no-one knows when, the process should stabilise
at a new equilibrium. But no-one can model that far ahead. For the forseeable future, the
local council's management plan estimates that the coastline will move inland
by about four or five metres every year. There's a lot of margin for error,
but even in the best-case scenario, Covehithe is gone in 100 years. Worst-case, 30 years. It won't actually crumble into the ocean:
to avoid pollution, buildings around here are demolished and taken away
when their time comes. And presumably someone will have to move the
church's graveyard. So why doesn't anyone save Covehithe? The landowners here did offer to build
their own coastal defences back in 2011, to add breakwaters here as an experiment
to see if the erosion could be slowed, but they were turned down by the council. This beach, where they'd need to build,
is owned by the government. And the government said no because... the needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few. A little way down the coast is Southwold,
home to a thousand people and a lot of tourism. And the simulations say that
if Covehithe stops eroding, then Southwold would probably start. Or at least, they'd need much, much
stronger defences. It's not practical to save
every building everywhere: this is miles of coastline and
they'd need to defend all of it, constantly, into eternity. The council's plan is clear: "it is not considered sustainable
to attempt to manage the erosion". I did ask both the landowners
and the council for a comment, but neither got back to me. Perhaps because Covehithe
isn't a tourist attraction, and I don't think they'd want to be. There are no amenities for visitors,
there's no little tea shop by the beach. But if you do happen to be somewhere
in the area in the next few years, it might be worth stopping by
to see Covehithe... while you can.
