Residents fed up with large lorries rumbling through their village carrying spoil to dump over Sheppey's cliffs have forced a summit with the Environment Agency.

Eastchurch Parish Council is holding a public meeting with agency bosses next month and is appealing for evidence.

In a letter to residents, parish clerk Fiona Jackson said: "For nearly two years there have been a lot of HGVs tipping at sites off Warden Road. This was referred to the Environment Agency which has taken the legal lead.

"The lorries are affecting residents through noise and disturbance, careless driving, untold damage to roads and verges, safety of pedestrians and equine users and are destroying the nature of the village. This is on top of the mass tipping of spoil and waste."

The council was asked to step in by resident and businesswoman Paula Seemann.

She said: "I have lorries thundering past my house every day. There can be 20 to 30 deliveries a day. I want people to be brought to book. It is madness they are getting away with it. Heaven knows what they are tipping over the cliffs."

The parish council says it has been lobbying the Environment Agency, Natural England, Kent Highways, Swale council and the police to get the tipping stopped since 2020. MP Gordon Henderson has also spoken out against the activity although he admitted he had "sympathy" with residents trying to save their homes.

The cliffs are also deemed Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because of the way they erode and reveal fossils millions of years old.

The parish council added: "We are frustrated that despite this being taken as far as the Secretary of State, the lorries continue."

One of the people behind the activity is parish councillor Malcolm Newell. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing and maintains he has a permit to rebuild part of the road after a bungalow disappeared over the edge of the cliffs near his home in Surf Crescent in May 2020. A second independent site is operating at the end of Manor Way.

The 72-year-old, a director of Eastchurch Gap Community Group Ltd which is behind the rescue operation, insisted: "We are doing nothing wrong. We have every right to protect our properties and the lorries are entitled to be on the roads. Besides, we only get four or five lorries a day maximum."

He stressed: "We don't object to the SSSI status but when the cliffs slip into the sea then so does the SSSI. All we are asking for is that the Environment Agency agrees to lift its non-intervention policy to allow us to reinstall 10 groynes along 200m of the pebble beach at the bottom of the cliffs to slow the erosion. It worked for the Victorians."

He and Peter MacDonald, 81, who is a parish and Swale councillor (Sheppey First, Sheppey Central) have devised a system they say will delay the waves eating away at the London Clay cliffs. They have costed it at £1 million.

They want to replace missing breakwaters and install wire gambions filled with stones at the foot of the cliffs. Cllr MacDonald and the Sheppey Coastal Protection Group have also been pushing for a £10m four-mile sea wall from Minster to Warden since August 2016.

Cllr Newell said: "All the spoil we are using has been specially licensed. We are doing our utmost to make the cliffs good again. We just want to get them back to being a grassy slope as they once were and plan to plant some willows to hold them together. We are getting slated for trying to save the cliffs."

He says 48 homes plus caravan parks are at risk.

"I reckon their combined value outweighs the cost of the operation and meets the EA's rules on everything being cost-effective," he said. "If nothing is done then in 50 to 70 years time the sea will be lapping at Plough Lane and all the £1m homes at Kingsborough Manor. We are only doing this because no one else will."

He bought his own home for £67,000 in 2001 and was told it would be good for up to 75 years. It is now second from the cliff edge.

In October 2020 the operation was issued with a temporary stop notice by Swale council.

The row re-erupted in June at Swale council's Sheppey Area Committee when Kent County Council's Andy Booth (Con, Sheppey) warned of an "environmental disaster" unfolding along the coastline.

He stormed: "Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of spoil are being dumped by HGV tippers along the shoreline and ruining our roads. People should be made aware of what is happening. I hope all those associated with this are thrown into prison for a very long time – and you can minute that!

"There has been utterly disgusting activity taking place for the past 18 months. There will be a significant cost for the removal of the spoil."

He added: "An environmental disaster of an industrial scale is unfolding as we sit here and apparently nothing is being done. It is a catastrophe."

Cllr Newell applied for a U1 environmental permit from the Environment Agency to reinstate the road and create a turning circle.

Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson, who lives in the area, said: "The U1 exemption certificate only allows a certain amount of dumping to fill a hole. But it's not a hole, it's a whole cliff. To do that needs planning permission and that won't be forthcoming all the time the cliffs are designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest."

He added: "I have a great deal of sympathy with them and have raised the problem in Parliament but it needs Natural England to change its mind. The only way we can save the cliffs is to get the SSSI designation removed and that's the nub of the problem.

"Unfortunately, the tipper lorries are destroying the roads. They start thundering through Eastchurch from 5.30am, rocking the houses and damaging the roads and verges. It is hardly conducive if you are trying to relax in one of the many caravan parks.

"I have a vested interest because I don't want my house to go into the sea, either, but this is illegal. It's not just spoil but metal and lumps of concrete."

Cllr Newell and Cllr MacDonald are not the only ones trying to save the cliffs. Farmer Steve Attwood and his son James also put forward a £500 million scheme six years ago which they claimed could be financed by using spoil from the next Thames tunnel which would be shipped to Sheppey on barges.

James said at the time: “My dad and I had been thinking about this for a long time. Sheppey’s northern coastline has been eroding at an alarming rate. But no one in authority seems to want to do anything about it.

“We understand there is no public funding for the necessary sea protection works so we have come up with our own alternative solution."

They proposed a four-mile sea wall up to 200m out from the existing shoreline and then in-filled with surplus soil to create a country and nature park along the coast from Minster to Warden.

A similar scheme was undertaken at Samphire Hoe, near Folkestone, using material from the construction of the Channel Tunnel. But Natural England insists nothing must be done to stop the erosion of Sheppey's cliffs. The farmers' scheme was turned down by both Natural England and the Environment Agency.

Losing property and fields to the sea is nothing new for the Island. Over the years, huge swathes of Sheppey’s coastline has tumbled into the briny. St James’ Church is now below the waves and the old Royal Oak pub at the bottom of Oak Lane, Minster, has long since slipped into oblivion. Huge concrete Second World War defences once perched on top of the cliffs at Eastchurch are now on the beach and covered by water at every high tide.

The parish council's clerk added: "We have arranged a meeting at the request of a resident for the Environment Agency to come to Eastchurch to talk to residents. They can explain what action they have taken and are taking. This will be an opportunity for residents to ask questions and put their own experiences across. The EA are keen for information on the lorries as this helps build up a picture of the massive disturbance they cause."

The meeting is at Eastchurch village hall on Tuesday, September 6 at 7pm.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "We are aware of reports of illegal waste tipping at two locations in Eastchurch and the impact that this and the associated lorry movements are having on the local community.

"We are prioritising our investigations into these reports and would urge the public to report information about this issue to our 24/7 incident number: 0800 807060. Information can also be reported anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.”

A Swale council spokesman said: "We’re aware of waste being dumped in Eastchurch and are investigating alongside other local and national organisations.”