New car park for clifftop village is a step closer

A plan to replace a car park in a seaside village suffering coastal erosion has moved a step forward.

A North Norfolk District Council report says the site at Happisburgh will become unsafe as further cliff is lost to the sea.

The car park opened in 2011, replacing another one in a village that has been increasingly ravaged by the sea in recent years.

The council said it would look for a contractor to build the car park, with funding from the government's flood and coastal innovation programmes.

The report for councillors says the car park is being eroded and is able to stay open only because a neighbour allows access through their garden.

Planning permission to move the clifftop car park further inland, to a site just off Lighthouse Lane, was granted last year.

The report recommends that "there should be no delay in progressing with construction… as the existing entrance to the current car park is at severe coastal erosion risk".

A spokeswoman for the authority said materials from the existing car park would be used in the new one, with costs covered by the council's Coastwise programme, which received £15m of government funding in 2022.

"I have no doubt that the future benefits to Happisburgh will prove this project a success," said Liberal Democrat Harry Blathwayt, the council's portfolio holder for the coast.

The council's cabinet is expected to approve the plan to find a contractor next Monday.

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