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Welsh Coastal Village Could Be Decommissioned So It Can Be ‘Taken By The Sea’

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Residents of a small Welsh village are fighting against the council’s decision to abandon their homes to the sea.

The people of Fairbourne in Cardigan Bay, west Wales, are devastated that officials have opted to ‘decommission’ their village, eventually abandoning sea defences and allowing the 500 homes to be taken by the sea.

The council is proposing a 'managed realignment’ of Fairbourne, which will see costly sea defences being abandoned in 40 years.

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Picturesque: The pretty village has 500 homes (REX)

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Not happy: Residents Sylvia Stephenson and Pete Cole who are fighting for the village’s future (REX)

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Fair trade: The council hopes that residents will gradually move out of the village (REX)

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Village life: Fairbourne boasts a railway station as well as several local shops (REX)

A council document explains: “In the medium term over the next 50 years plans have to have been put in place and implemented to abandon defences and for the people to relocate. In the long term defences would not be maintained”.

According to local residents this has caused house prices to plummet, meaning they are unable to move, while local businesses have also suffered.

They are preparing for a legal fight saying that the plans are based on the 'nonsensical’ assumption that sea levels will rise by a whole metre in the next century.