Devon village facing 'existential' threat from climate change

After a year of winter storms, heatwaves and record rainfall, communities are grappling with how to adapt to climate change. In Torcross, a £20m sea defence scheme is planned amid warnings the Devon village faces an “existential” threat from the sea.

Some people were “thinking about demolition and walking away” after violent winter storms battered their homes in the Devon village of Torcross earlier this year.

It was “a disaster that happened overnight,” added George Arnison, the Environment Agency’s coastal engineer for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

During January and February 2026 huge waves smashed into the sea defences which protected the coastal community around Start Bay, badly damaging seafront properties, washing away part of the main road and leaving the village facing what Arnison described as an “existential” threat.

Later this summer work will begin to position 55,000 tonnes of rock in front of the existing sea defences as part of a £19.8m improvement scheme that Arnison said would “buy the community some time”.

But research by the University of Plymouth shows the level of the beach in Start Bay has dropped by around 2m (6.6ft) in places, making the old sea defences less effective.

The latest on Torcross was unveiled this week just as scientists and experts were meeting for the Exeter Climate Forum, external, with some calling for more to be done to cut emissions and adapt to a warming world.