Man ordered to let his house fall into the sea

PurpleBerry

A pensioner has launched a High Court legal battle against a government-funded organisation after he was told that he must not prevent his cliffside home from falling into the sea.
Peter Boggis, a retired engineer, built his own coastal defences to prevent erosion that was threatening his home as well as neighbouring properties.
But Natural England wants the fossil-bearing cliffs on which the houses stand to wear away, exposing soil and rock that they want to study.
In 2006 it declared that the area was a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Mr Boggis was banned from maintaining his ‘soft sea defences'.
The 77-year-old is currently arguing at London's High Court that Natural England has acted beyond its powers and has no legal right to prevent him from defending his home.
The case, which is believed to have cost around £50,000 to bring to court, is "extremely critical for all people living along the coast" as they might also be prevented from protecting their homes, according to Mr Boggis.
Gregory Jones, Mr Boggis' lawyer, told Mr Justice Blair - the brother of the former Prime Minister - that the purpose of SSSIs was to conserve or preserve geological features, not to study the results of cliff destruction.
Natural England argues that it had a legitimate scientific interest in allowing the sea to erode the cliffs.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blog/editors_corner/article/8526/

Poor bloke about to lose his home. Just how important are these rocks?

Dancor

Stupid shower of hippie cnuts who most likely dont have a home :mad:

ScumLord

This is daft. The fossils aren't going anywhere wait till his dead.

I don't see why he's paying any attention to them. I'd just defend my home and if they have a problem with it let them take it to court. That way if he did lose they'd be stuck with a bill to undo his work.

Zillah

What engineer builds his home close enough to the sea that it's under threat?

Cookie_Monster

The need of the many outweigh the needs of the few (or the one)

Think of all those poor nerds scientists who want to look at all the boring interesting rocks but are being denied

He should have got planning permission to build the defences anyway:pac:

Dinter

He should stop with the boring old sea defences to keep the waves out and move onto more exciting land defences like mines and pangee traps to keep the scientists out.

KnifeWRENCH

Sure, his house is important but so too (apparently) are these fossils, and in all fairness the fossils were there first.

lostexpectation

this ain't about fossils, although it positive that he put in -soft- defences, if his house doesn't go it will be somebody else down the way, thats not fair.

stovelid

When I read the title, I really wanted his name to be Cliff.

tony1kenobi

The poor old bastard is 77 and going through a high court case. He won't outlast the house or the fossils. I blame the Russians.

Victor

Artifically protecting one area means another area suffers premature erosion.

That other area would be protected by the material eroded from the first location.

lostexpectation

look at the pic the house is gonner

Tar.Aldarion

Zillah wrote: »

What engineer builds his home close enough to the sea that it's under threat?

Civil.

smellslikeshoes

Good luck to him in his court case. There should be nothing with the right to prevent a man from protecting his home. If it were me I'd be investing in a digger and a few loads of concrete regardless of the outcome of the case.

Ourlad

If he built the house he possibly owns the land. They should have to buy the land of him or compensate him in some way if his property is to be destroyed for their studies.

Overheal

Victor wrote: »

Artifically protecting one area means another area suffers premature erosion.

That other area would be protected by the material eroded from the first location.

In fairness we've done much worse as a species. Entire Marshlands have been erased to make the way for cheap housing, and the surrounding ecosystem is gets severely and dramatically altered as a result, just to name one example. A house on a cliff in comparison, over the course of the few years its soft-protected versus the thousands of years it takes to erode the feature, is no great loss.