Council tax hike for cottage facing demolition

The owners of a clifftop holiday cottage have said their council tax bill will double next year even though the property has been earmarked for demolition.

The Skipsea property is classed an unoccupied second home and East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) rules state owners have an increased charge unless it is lived in or rented out.

Deborah Hawksley said they cannot rent out the cottage as the council previously told them the building is unsafe and needed to be demolished.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council declined to comment on the Hawksley's case but said it is "working with communities at risk to explore how we can better support them to adapt to coastal erosion."

The Hawksley family has owned their coastal site since the 1930’s and built 'October Cottage' when a previous holiday home, on the same plot, came too close to the cliff edge.

Ms Hawksley says her 90-year-old mother, the owner of the property, could soon face a council tax bill of around £280 per month.

She said: "We are in a real catch-22 position. We can't sell the place, we can't rent it out, but they [East Riding Council] also insist that we will pay double council tax from April of next year. And that seems incredibly unfair."

The family signed a contract with ERYC in 2021 which will mean the cottage is demolished, without any charge to the owner, once it is less than 9.3m (30ft) from the eroding cliff edge.

"I don't like to measure it too often because it's too distressing. I believe we are just under 10m from the edge at present," said Ms Hawksley.

There are around a dozen properties on Green Lane in Skipsea at varying distances from the edge of the cliff, but all of them are losing their gardens to the sea.

The clifftop homes were once accessed via a coastal road, but over the last 20 years it has slipped into the sea along with fences, water pipes, sewage systems and telephone lines.

Ms Hawksley said the community was in a unique situation when it comes to council tax because they receive "no services".

"My mother pays one hundred and forty six pounds a month, every month for twelve months of the year. And that's going to double. There's no street lighting. There is no bin collection for us. So we receive nothing," she said.

The Holderness coastline, between Skipsea and Kilnsea, is one of the fastest eroding in Europe, owing to its 'soft' boulder clay, according to scientists.

A report on Wednesday from the Environment Agency said the East Yorkshire coast could lose up to 1100 properties by 2025 as climate change accelerated the process.

In areas where it is unable to build or maintain coastal defences, ERYC offers support from its 'Coastal Change Fund' to help homeowners pay for demolition and relocation.

An ERYC spokesperson said the authority works to "inform households of the level of coastal erosion risk to their property as early as possible".

"We are also working with communities to explore how we can better support them to adapt to coastal erosion in the long-term, while taking action to relocate important community assets and infrastructure in the short-term."

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