A former soldier hauled his beloved home more than 10ft back from a crumbling cliff top – just minutes before council chiefs were due to order its demolition.
Lance Martin, 65, feared his house would be knocked down after coastal erosion left it teetering just 3ft from a 50ft cliff.
But he refused to accept defeat and finally managed to drag the 50 ton wooden chalet back from the edge of the sandy cliff in Hemsby, Norfolk.
Great Yarmouth Borough Council had warned that it would issue an order requiring the demolition at noon if he had not managed to make progress.
But defiant Lance refused to give up and a crowd of watching villagers cheered as two diggers finally managed to force the house free from its concrete foundations and pull it to safety.
Lance, a former Grenadier Guard, raised his arms to the sky in celebration and hugged some of the contractors who had helped him shift his home.
His house is now directly beside a roadway through the Marrams in Hemsby and stands on the spot where he previously had four giant wooden plant tubs.
Lance has permission to clear hundreds of tons of soil from a bank on the other side of the road so he can move his home back another 17m.
He said: “It’s given us the breathing space we needed. Now we’ve shown it can be moved we can make proper arrangements to move the house across the road after we have cleared the site.”
Lance said council officials had been walking down the road to his house to hand him a Section 78 demolition order when he finally managed to move the house, earning him a reprieve.
Lance and his partner Tracey were forced to evacuate their home last Thursday after huge sections of the sandy cliff and his fence were swept away.
Three homes in the northern part of The Marrams were demolished on the orders of the council last weekend following the latest high tides.
But council officials agreed to hold off ordering the demolition of Lance’s home to give him a chance to drag it to safety.
Lance said he was determined to carry on living in his house with its panoramic views of the North Sea which he likened this week to “the world’s best infinity pool”.
He said: “I hope it means that I will be able to live here for another 20
years. There is no way that I am going to give up now.
“You can actually hear the rumble of the sea through the building when you go to bed. It is just a fantastic way to live.”
Lance bought his bungalow for £95,000 in 2017 after taking early retirement from his job as a Whitehall security officer and selling his flat in Dagenham, Essex.
At the time he had 120ft between his home and the cliff, which was eroding at the rate of a metre a year, giving him up to 40 years at the spot.
But the rate accelerated during his first winter in his new home, and the Beast from the East storm in February 2018 led to about 90ft of cliff being washed away in just two nights.
Lance is holding on to the hope that the Government will eventually fund a £12million project to put 1km long rock berm sea defences along the length of beach at Hemsby to protect the entire village.
The council this week agreed to install 1,900 tons of boulders on the beach close to the village’s lifeboat station as an emergency sea defence measure.
Describing the moment he saw his house moving at around 12.30pm, Lance said: “It was just fantastic, a feeling of elation and thankfulness for all the help we’ve had down here.
“I never had a doubt we would move it, you get the right people behind you, with fantastic ideas and the right machinery and we’ve achieved what we needed to.”
“I just want to live in peace and quiet you know. I enjoy Hemsby, I enjoy the lifestyle here.”
Lorna Bevan, founder of the Save Hemsby Coastline group said dozens more homes in the seaside village were at risk unless urgent intervention is taken.
She said: “Why are they not throwing money at us from central government?
The people that live up here, they pay their taxes, they brought their properties in good faith.
“It’s not too late to protect the homes that are still in place. There are 92 homes at risk after this. Why are we not protecting them?”
James Wilson, head of environment and sustainability at Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said Lance’s house had been moved “some significant distance”.
He added: “There’s more to go and we’re continuing to monitor the situation, but he’s moved it away from imminent danger.”
A spokesperson for Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s coastal management team, Coastal Partnership East (CPE), said: “Great Yarmouth Borough Council, via CPE, is initiating emergency works to reduce the erosion risk to the main access road for the Marrams.
“This road provides access for a number of properties and is also the conduit for utilities like water and electricity.’
“All those with homes at risk have been visited by the council’s housing and community teams who continue to offer advice.
“Storage space for people who need somewhere to put belongings has been organised and assistance in moving items is being provided.”
