Thursday 21st August 2025 - Paying For It and A Rumour

What a summer we’ve been enjoying, with its long, warm and sunny days when the weather forecasters, questionably, declared we were in a heatwave, followed by another and another and so on.  However, it’s all change and boy are we paying for those earlier days and weeks.  It’s been cloudy and the north and north easterly winds have sent me to the wardrobe looking for warmer tops.  I feel for a former work colleague who with her family are spending this week further down the coast.  They’ve missed the warm days but judging by the photos she’s posted on Facebook, this hasn’t stopped them enjoying the vast swathes of sandy beaches, not forgetting the odd ice-cream or two.

Villages are great places for rumours to be bandied about.  These often, like Chinese whispers, end up getting distorted, eventually bearing little resemblance to the original.  With this in mind, and hearing a rumour which may or may not have any foundation, I decided to contact Coastal Management (CM) at NNDC for an update on the situation regarding the closure of the prom, due to the slump containing Japanese knotweed, as well as the proposed repairs to the damaged sea wall.  I sent them an email on Sunday and since then, I’ve heard nothing.  Is everyone in the CM group on holiday, or been making a presence at the Cromer Carnival, or are they not quite sure how to respond? 

I should add, back on June 3^rd, I received an email from CM, updating on the issues with the prom as follows: ‘We have commissioned a specialist to look into the best way to deal with the wider Knotweed issue in this location, and we are expecting their draft report later this month, as such I will be able to update more fully once we have received it.

In the short term, we are still investigating how best to dispose of the cliff material which is currently on the prom, but we hope to have a solution soon.’ 

Since then, I’ve heard nothing, nor seen anything in the public domain providing an update, plus the cliff material referred to, remains on the prom.  The lack of an update, coupled with the current rumour, is what spurred me to send the follow up email to CM in the hope they would provide clarification.  I wait in anticipation for their response.

Rugosa roses grow freely on the cliffs and the back of the beaches.  Most of the flowers have now faded but in their place, as can be seen in today’s photo, the shrubs now have bright orange and red hips.