A retired engineer who has spent thousands of pounds building his own sea defences is seeking to appeal a legal judgement which ruled against him last month.

A retired engineer who has spent thousands of pounds building his own sea defences is seeking to appeal a legal judgement which ruled against him last month.

Since 2002, Peter Boggis, 78, has built more than 1km of his own coastal defences in front of the eroding cliffs below his house at Easton Bavents, just north of Southwold, using 250,000 tonnes of compacted clay soil.

For the past three years he has been fighting against Natural England's proposals to include the fossil-rich cliffs in a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). But last month Court of Appeal judges in London ruled against him and stated that the cliffs should be allowed to erode naturally.

The work was carried out without planning permission and the Court of Appeal said the only lawful course open to Mr Boggis and other members of Easton Bavents Conservation was to apply for permission and go through the correct planning process.

But today solicitors acting for Mr Boggis said they have applied to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal on October 20.

Mr Boggis said: 'I am determined to do everything in my power to protect the little village my family established a hundred years ago from being destroyed without compensation as I believed was the intention of English Nature to achieve by including the beach our sea defence is on in the SSSI to prevent its maintenance and encourage Waveney District Council to take enforcement action.'

For the full story see tomorrow's EDP.