Villagers have been stranded after a massive storm destroyed the coastal road that connects them to the outside world and nobody knows where they’ll get the £18million to fix it.
The A379 into Torcross was swept into the sea after being pummeled by 12ft waves and 60mph winds in Storm Imogen in south Devon earlier this month.
It was not the only casualty in the storm. Landlady Gail Stubbs’ pub, the Start Bay Inn, was smashed up by the deluge along with several neighbouring houses.
The road runs a precarious two-mile stretch along a narrow shingle bar between Torcross and nearby Slapton and is nicknamed ‘The Slapton Line’.
After the storm, 200 metres of the vital access road had been washed into the south Devon sea. The shingle bar had been used for rehearsals of the D-Day landings because it resembled Utah Beach in Normandy, but it looks more like a warzone now than ever.
Even if someone is found to pay the £18million bill to fix the gouges in the tarmac, repairs may not be finished until 2027.
The destruction at the pub itself and the ruined road connecting the village to the outside world have spelt misery for Mrs Stubbs’ pub.
The A379 between Torcross and Slapton in South Devo has collapsed into the sea after Storm Imogen thus month
Torcross is now cut off from the rest of the world after the 200 metre section fell into the sea
Gail Stubbs’ ancient thatched pub dates back to the 1400s but she is worried that it won’t be able to take many more storms like this after being heavily damaged in Storm Imogen. She expects the business to take a 50 per cent hit
The 47-year-old told The Telegraph: ‘We predict that our business could be down by up to 50 per cent – we don’t know whether to start hiring for the summer season or not.’
Some 300,000 holidaymakers come to the South West each summer. Now access to Torcross is much more limited, with only one road remaining, which forces a massive detour on narrow country lanes for drivers heading to Slapton or nearby Dartmouth.
Mrs Stubbs has made the drive with her partner and said she had to stop and reverse 22 times on the trip to let other cars pass.
Her inn dates back to the 1400s, but Mrs Stubbs fears storms like this could wipe out that 600 year history. She added: ‘The damage to the village has been quite severe, and if it carries on, we may not even be here physically anymore.
‘I’m really not sure how many more storms the village can sustain.’
Windows and roofs were smashed in by rogue waves crashing over the sea wall onto a row of houses along the promenade. Alleyways were left sitting full with waist deep water.
The Start Bay Inn defiantly remains open despite its boarded-up windows. It was still busy of the half-term weekend too, as well as neighbouring cafes – admittedly due to an influx of rubbernecking ‘disaster tourists’.
But this will not last, and there are already reports of holidaymakers cancelling bookings in the wake of the news.
Gerd Masselink, professor of coastal geomorphology at the University of Plymouth, said the damage to the road, village and beach was ‘the biggest change that’s happened here in the last 10 years.’
The beach was lowered by 6.6ft in the storm, essentially amounting to over six years of damage. In the past 20 years, the beach has fallen 20ft, Masselink said.
As well as the damage to the road, several buildings including Gail Stubbs’ pub the Start Bay Inn have been heavily damaged with smashed windows and roofs
Metal clanking in the waves means that Ali Willcock, owner of Torcross’s Billy Can cafe can’t sleep. He said: ‘Everything rattles all the time, it’s impossible to sleep’
‘It is very significant but it’s part of an ongoing trend at beaches along the south coast, of gravel and sand being moved from the western end, to the eastern end,’ warned Mr Masselink.
He added: ‘We’re going to see increased flooding, we’re going to see erosion on beaches that used to be stable. We’re going to see increased erosion at beaches that are already eroding.
‘We can’t keep defending coastlines for the next 20, 30, 40 years.
‘Unless we start casting the whole coast in concrete, we have to start retreating’.
For now, however, a school bus service has been set up for children who need a lift around the collapsed road. What was once a 10-minute journey to Dartmouth now takes 45 minutes and locals are worried about access to doctors, chemists and emergency services.
Torcross is no stranger to terrible flood and storm damage. The Slapton Line has collapsed three times already in 2001, 2016 and 2018 and the government has not said it is willing to repair it yet again.
Mrs Stubbs’ inn has also seen bad storm damage, with the pool table nearly being washed out of the doors in one storm in 1979. It was this that prompted a proper sea wall being built at the village.
The £18million repair cost estimate is well over Liberal Democrat-run Devon County Council’s budget with hopes central government funding from the new £1billion Structures Fund might save the road, but nobody is confident.
Local Liberal Democrat councillor Dan Thomas highlighted the difficulties of maintaining a piece of road right by the sea and pointed out there is a nationwide shortage of funding for highways. It means road like these are often a struggle to keep maintained.
In a village hall meeting, things got heated with locals angry as county council leader Julian Brazil explained that government funding was limited.
They aired resourceful ideas like the Army building a pontoon bridge, the £18million be taken from the billions in the foreign aid budget, making it a toll road, even a kelp bank to protect the coastline.
A Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs spokesperson said: ‘We’re committed to supporting coastal communities through our record investment of £10.5bn in protecting against flooding and coastal erosion by 2036, benefitting nearly 900,000 properties.
‘In addition, having inherited flood defences in the worst condition on record, we have reprioritised more than £100m into urgent maintenance works to make sure defences are properly maintained.’
