Drone pilot's fears over landslips near theme park

"It's amazing but also worrying to see how much the cliff is moving," said a drone pilot who has been documenting landslides around the island he calls home.

Born and bred on the Isle of Wight, Jamie Woodford said he has seen it change a lot over the years.

Witnessing it from the skies with his drone has opened his eyes to one particularly noticeable development, he said - the cliffs are crumbling into the sea.

Woodford, 37, believes the worst area "in terms of how quickly it's falling" is on the south of the island, near the Blackgang Chine amusement park in Ventnor.

A spokesperson from Vectis Ventures, which runs Blackgang Chine and owns the land, said the company was "well versed with the landscape" and "therefore continuously take proactive precautions year-round to mitigate the need for emergency reactions".

Woodford said heavy rainfall has caused "quite a lot of movement within the cliffs and also on land".

After flying his drone around the area last year, he said he was able to predict the most recent movements and managed to capture their aftermath.

"There is definitely a bit of pace to them now," said Woodford, adding that local residents had reacted to his images on social media, expressing their concerns about the park's precarious position.

His drone images show some of the activities at the UK's oldest amusement park appear to be sitting close to the edge.

"If we have another cliff-fall, I think it could easily take at least the bottom half of the maze out," he said.

Vectis Ventures said: "We monitor the cliff incredibly closely, with both movement sensors and very regular drone flights with 3D mapping technology.

"Whilst we know it always looks dramatic, the reports don't show anything significant or that different from our usual winter slippages where we except some erosion with every year."

The park will open its doors for the new season from 21 March.

The Isle of Wight has seen significant landslips in recent years, with one of the largest on its south coast in December 2023 in Bonchurch, Ventnor, forcing people nearby to evacuate their homes.

"It might just be that it's a bit of a coincidence that there have been a number of events," said Joel Smethurst, professor of geotechnical infrastructure at the University of Southampton.

The big events are rare, as "coastal erosion can be quite episodic", he said, adding that a long-term study was needed to say for certain if things were getting worse.

But Smethurst warned a "sequence of drier summers" followed by "very wet winters" was promoting more big landslips to form in the cliffs "and maybe a higher rate of erosion as well".

There are methods which can be used to secure unstable areas, said the professor.

"The stabalisation approach has generally been to put down large concrete shafts to try and pin the moving soil down, into the stable underlying materials.

"It's a bit like stitching it all together with a big concrete pile."

An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson advised: "At this time of year, parts of the island's coastline can be fragile and care should be taken when out and about, ensuring not to walk close to edges or below cliffs."

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