Huge Cornwall cliff fall causes "whole houses to shake" at site where developers wanted to build luxury homes

A huge cliff fall caused "whole houses to shake" at a site where developers were planning on building luxury homes. Tonnes of rock plummeted down the 200ft cliff face on December 19 at the site of a protest earlier this year to stop the homes being built on top of it.

The latest incident at Whipsiderry Beach in Newquay, Cornwall, comes just weeks after campaigners warned more would come crashing down. Lyndsey Young, who has been documenting a series of falls at the beauty spot which has been closed off to the public for nearly three weeks, said it was "inevitable" and warned, "there is still more to go for sure".

Save Whipsiderry Cliffs, a campaign group created to protest against the planned development of cliff-top houses shared details of the fall that occurred just after midday. On social media, they wrote: "Another substantial cliff fall at Whipsy! We knew it was going to go, as there were some serious cracks after the last fall which left the cliff in a very unstable state. A lot more rock, soil, and shale has fallen onto the beach, just before noon today.

"It’s still unstable, as you can see from the various cracks. Resident in the local area, told us their whole house shook!!"

A "major" cliff fall at the Newquay site back in November brought a serious warning as more was expected to come crumbling down. These fears were confirmed as a further "substantial" cliff fall has occurred in the area - which is deemed to be still unstable due to large cracks in the cliff face. Lyndsey, who took the shocking images and videos today at around midday, said: "We knew this was going to happen after the first fall - the cliff is very unstable & has a big crack. Then we had the rain last night and that makes a huge difference."

After the previous fall, steps and a section of footpath leading to a beach in Newquay, Cornwall, were closed off. Members of the public were asked to keep well away from the 200ft cliff edge over fears of further erosion. The site was used back in March for a protest by locals who were campaigning to have work stopped to fill in caves at the base of the cliffs, to enable properties to be developed on top of the 200-foot cliff.

Campaigners successfully saw developers get their licences suspended earlier this year over fears their work could make the cliff too unstable. Save Whipsiderry Cliffs group said contractors had been excavating sea caves, with heavy machinery, drilling into rock, inserting steel rods and filling the caves with concrete, including part of the cliff face above.

Due to the damage caused by the fall, the steps and surrounding footpath were shut for safety reasons to allow specialist engineers to carry out investigations on site. Locals reacted with shock that developers, Living Quarter Properties, had ever planned to put homes there.

One said: "Crazy - this is a wake up call to the developers!" Another said: "Someone put some luxury second homes on this cliff immediately." While another local added: "Thats BIG..... Its crazy to think about building apartments on top of that cliff, no amount of stabilizing mesh would stop a rockfall like that."