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Watchet landslip home owners 'can return home for now'

BBC Jackie and Tom DickensonBBC
Jackie Dickenson says she is happy to be back but is worried about the safety of their home

A couple whose mobile home is in danger of falling off a cliff edge have been told they can return while its future is decided - even though their garden has fallen on to the beach.

"I'm happy we can come back to our home but obviously there is a degree of concern there," Jackie Dickenson said.

The council has allowed the move while in talks with owners of West Bay Residential Park Homes in Somerset.

The park said soil tests would help to establish the "nature" of the erosion.

Jackie and Tom Dickenson's back garden
The couple's back garden has eroded and fallen on to the beach below

Mrs Dickenson and her husband Tom were moved into temporary accommodation in March when Somerset West and Taunton Council condemned their park home and another at the Watchet site as unsafe.

A spokesman for the owners, RS Hill and Sons Ltd, based in Fareham, Hampshire, said: "After further discussion with residents, we listened to their concerns and felt we needed to learn more about the precise nature of the situation affecting the site.

"We suspended all enforcement action, and instructed a specialist company to carry out further soil tests."

The company said the tests had been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

'Not the safest place'

Since the Dickensons were moved, the continued erosion has seen their garden fall on to the beach below.

Deputy leader of the council, Benet Allen said: "We've granted them an extension so they can go back in while they're negotiating what's going to happen next.

"But looking at the picture you can see that the sea is rapidly eating away at that cliff and that anyone who lives in a caravan right on a cliff edge is not in the world's safest place."

West Bay caravan park in Watchet
The site owner intends to carry out soil tests to establish what can be done

Since March, five other park home owners have received a letter from the site owners telling them to move their homes off the land "with immediate effect" for their own safety.

But some residents believe the erosion has been caused by poor drainage.

Helen Davies, who owns a home at the park, said: "The initial meeting with our landlord was very fraught, lots of tears and adamant that we will not be leaving our homes based on these incomplete surveys that our landlord has provided."