A stretch of road linking communities in West Somerset, which has been closed to cars for more than a year, might never reopen due to climate change, a geological firm claims.
Somerset Council is working with the Environment Agency on plans to secure the road's long-term future but Geckoella, the firm monitoring the coastline, believes the situation will only get worse.The road sits just feet from the rapidly eroding cliff edge, and forms part of the popular Somerset section of the England Coastal Path - linking Brean and Minehead.
He said the impact of climate change was not only the raised sea levels, but an increase in persistent rainfall in the area, meaning coastal erosion was getting worse. But while the coastline is being pushed back, Dr King said: "Nobody is going to be standing by or letting Watchet erode into the sea."
Further down the coast, boulders were placed at points at Minehead and Blue Anchor to slow down the rate of erosion - at a cost of millions of pounds and before the council declared a financial emergency.