Residents hit by a catastrophic landslide are being asked to help fund investigation works, following a decision by Hastings councillors.
At an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday (October 16), Hastings Borough Council agreed to pursue a shared costs approach — described as ‘option two’ in meeting papers — to investigation works needed to determine the next steps in addressing February’s landslide at the Old Roar Gill nature reserve.
The decision itself was made during a confidential session, due to what the council described as ‘information relating to financial or business affairs.’
A short section of the meeting was held publicly, however, where several councillors asked questions on the non-confidential section of the report.
Passing on questions posed by residents living next to Old Roar Gill, Conquest ward councillor Paul Foster (Con) asked council officers what evidence the council had that it was not liable for the landslide.
The council’s chief legal officer Mary Kilner initially declined to answer the question in public session, saying legal advice was ‘strictly for part two of the meeting’.
On being pressed, however, Ms Kilner said: “What I will say is that the council’s insurers, Zurich, commissioned the report, the technical note which is here. In that report, it did not establish responsibility or liability for the cliff fall.”
Cllr Foster also asked officers whether residents had been consulted about the options presented to councillors.
He said: “Have the residents affected by the landslide been consulted in the design of option two? If residents are not in a financial position to pay — the landslide has had a profound financial impact — and insurance companies won’t pay, as they have already indicated to residents, why is option two being presented as viable?”
In response to the question Stephen Dodson, the council’s head of strategic programmes, said: “The option in option two is to enter into discussions with regard to potential shared costs with the residents at this stage. At that point, all considerations and design and everything else will be discussed.
“I do understand from my colleague that discussions have already taken place with the residents, that they would be engaged and involved in any design. That is why the option is there, because we want to give that opportunity for further discussion.”
This claim — that discussions had already taken place with the residents — was heavily disputed by those residents present at the meeting. Several residents even left the meeting in protest when this claim was made.
Speaking to the LDRS, residents present at the meeting also disputed claims made by officers around the land ownership of the affected area.
Responding to a question from Conservative councillor Matthew Beaver, Ms Kilner said: “It is the lower part of Old Roar Gill, the ecological area that is on the bottom where the waterfall and everything else is, [which] is owned by the council. The actual area of the collapse is owned by the respective residents who live on that slope.”
Residents argued this was inaccurate, who said the collapsed area included a public footpath running behind the affected properties. The LDRS is unclear about who owns this footpath, but East Sussex County Council lists it as a public right of way (under reference Hastings 153).
The investigation works residents will be asked to help fund come from recommendations set out in a report from specialist consultants Diales — a firm appointed by the council’s insurers following the landslide.
These further investigation works are understood to be both costly and time-intensive. Just one element of these works, a groundwater monitoring regime, would take at least six months to complete.
The council has said these further investigation works would be needed before any remedial stabilisation works could take place.
At this stage, the specific costs for the investigation works have not been made public, due to reasons of commercial confidentiality. However, the public section of a report considered by councillors describes these costs as “high”.
The report also notes how the council’s insurer has indicated it will not accept further responsibility for the landslide unless legal liability is established.
At the start of the meeting, council leader Julia Hilton said the council was working with others to lobby government for “climate adaptation funding”.
Cllr Hilton said: “The landslide that took place in February continues to have a devastating effect on the families directly affected by the landslides with two households forced to seek temporary accommodation and many more households worried about the implications to their homes if further landslides occur. This is why we have set up the land stability group to … ensure greater understanding of the future risks of land slips
“From the combination of the particular geology of Hastings with the weather patterns it is likely to see more extreme weather coming our way. We have also published our online landslip residents’ toolkit to offer practical advice to residents who live close to cliffs and steep slopes.
“This is not just an issue in Hastings, but other areas with similar geology, so there is also wider partnership work going on with other councils to share learning and also to lobby government for climate adaptation funding to cover councils in challenging geology, such as Hastings, as well as providing government-backed insurance schemes for residents in these high risk areas, similar to that provided to residents in flood prone zones.”
