By Tom Wall
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Looe has the dubious accolade of being the most frequently flooded town in the country. According to the Environment Agency, the historic centre of low-beamed inns, old fishermen stores and merchant houses typically floods four to eight times a year, putting at risk more than 200 properties on every occasion. Yet the agency estimates the town’s plight will get worse as rising global temperatures increase sea levels and whip up ever more devastating storms, with the centre expected to flood 14 times a year in 2020 and 60 times a year in 2050.
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These existential threats are not confined to Looe. The British coast is crumbling into the sea at an accelerating rate, with huge chunks of cliffs and beaches being swept away in storms each winter. According to the Committee on Climate Change, sea levels around Britain could rise by at least a metre over the lifetimes of today’s children.
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Yet smaller coastal communities such as Looe only qualify for limited government funding for flood defence, which is targeted at more densely populated areas. Councils are expected to look to private businesses to make up shortfalls. But the environmental food and rural affairs select committee found this year that it has become increasingly difficult to attract such contributions, with only £50 million secured from private sector sources since 2015. “The money that is available for schemes in small places like Looe falls quite far short of what is actually needed,” says Marks.
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Other stretches of the Cornish coast are similarly threatened. Up to 100 properties around the county’s rugged coastline are currently at imminent risk from coastal erosion with this figure rising to 1,600 by 2050 and 4,500 by 2100. There are more than 30 communities – including popular resorts such as St Ives, Newquay and Bude – at risk from flooding and erosion. The council calculates it would cost £330m to safeguard its shoreline, which is the longest in the country. But it can only raise £61m under the government’s flood defence and coastal erosion funding system, leaving the council with a £269m funding gap to fill.
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