Caithness woman fears her home could fall into the sea
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A WOMAN'S home perched on a headland overlooking Thurso Bay is within five metres of falling into the sea due to coastal erosion and localised flooding.
Shirley Hardie, who has lived at her house on the Thurso to Scrabster road for more than two decades, woke up on Sunday to discover a large section of her garden missing.
It had in fact washed away, after being undermined by a run-off pipe and the impact of winter weather hammering away at the headland at East Gills.
Despite Miss Hardie pleading with the local authority on and off for two decades, action has yet to be taken to secure her house.
This week she said: “I just want to keep my home. I don’t want to lose it – I have worked for years for it and I love it.”
Local Highland councillor Struan Mackie was contacted by Miss Hardie. Councillor Mackie spoke of his shock at the sight that greeted him, saying that it was far worse than in any of the photos that the worried resident had sent him.
Miss Hardie said: “On Sunday morning I woke up and found that a subsidence has brought the edge of the headland right close to the house – at its closest point it is now 4.5 metres from the corner of my house.
“I am not a particularly nervous person but I want to know what the council is going to do about it because this is really serious. I have had to remortgage the house. I have lived here for more than 30 years.
“It will be a long while yet before I get that paid off and I fear that I could be sitting in a home that is effectively worthless due to what is happening – that it might just fall into the sea.
“I just want to stay here because it is my home and I love it here. It is in a lovely position.”
Miss Hardie said she had been trying to get Highland Council to take her concerns seriously for more than 22 years since the first subsidence but little or nothing had been done.
The last incident of subsidence was around seven years ago and little action was taken at the time. Three years ago a coastal survey was conducted but again recommendations made do not appear to have been acted upon.
Councillor Mackie fears that if what has been said locally is borne out then insufficient monitoring took place since the survey and that means the whole situation could have been prevented.
“It is quite staggering what has taken place – a significant part of the garden has subsided onto the beach below and the edge of the headland is just a few metres from the property," he said.
“It has been very difficult getting hold of anybody. It appears our coastal erosion team is also part of our roads team but I also think that the level of damage means that perhaps SEPA [the Scottish Environment Protection Agency] should be involved."
A council spokesman said the team had visited the site of the subsidence and delivered the following report this week: “There’s no risk of immediate collapse. The coastal erosion is clearly worth monitoring and we will be doing that. We will regularly check the deterioration in the ground conditions at this location.”
Miss Hardie responded: "That is an absolutely disgraceful response and that is not acceptable. I have never seen any monitoring being conducted since that was recommended in 2017. I wasn't notified about the inspection and I certainly feel they should have notified me if they were called to my house."
