Sandbags for Sandbanks

Reports in the Dorset Echo suggest that rising sea levels and increasingly stormy weather could make some of the most exclusive homes in Britain, situated on Sandbanks in Poole, Dorset unliveable" within 25 years.

Geology expert Dr Edward Coombe has warned that current estimates predicted a 7-10cm sea-level rise a decade, but low-pressure systems and severe storms could create sudden rises of more than a foot.

The former lecturer and research fellow at Oxford University, who now lives in Canford Heath, added: "Sandbanks is a wave-created land form and waves will go on to destroy it in due course.

"This is what happens when sea levels rise...Storminess is increasing and the period between catastrophic events is decreasing....The 50-year storm is now the 25-year storm...I would never buy property in Sandbanks even if I could possibly afford it....The insurance alone is going to be prohibitively expensive."

Mark Rice, a spokesman for the Environment Agency, said it was currently modelling the effects of higher seas and increasing storms on Sandbanks as part of a review of the area. He said the highest spring tides could flood Panorama Road and Shore Road in the future, with "storm surges" having a similar effect.