‘There is no great master plan’: anxiety as UK homes, roads and railways sink into the sea

Key Takeaways

• The remains of the road linking two towns in south Devon lie crumbled on the foreshore in a mess of tarmac, steel and concrete.
• The dramatic coastal road, known as the Slapton Line, has an environmentally protected freshwater lake on one side and the sea on the other, and links the towns of Kingsbridge and Dartmouth.
• But this year, winter storms demolished a section of the A road between Torcross and Slapton, which is at the frontline of rising sea levels and coastal erosion, fulfilling a destiny that was predicted more than 30 years ago, but that has not been prepared for.
• On bank holiday Monday, hundreds of people will walk the route of the road as the tourist season begins in earnest, to highlight how its collapse has hit their livelihoods and put lifestyles under threat.
• “It is just worrying that nothing is being done,” says Gill Sterry, owner of the Sea View campsite.