These aerial photographs of Pennington Point show the shocking extent of cliff erosion over the last eight years.

Sidmouth Herald: Pennington Point aerial photograph from 2007.Pennington Point aerial photograph from 2007. (Image: Archant)

East Devon District Council commissioned a survey in March to capture up-to-date footage of the shoreline below Cliff Road using a fixed-wing drone as it works towards a beach management plan.

Plymouth Coastal Observatory has compared photos taken in March this year to similar images from 2007.

An EDDC spokesman said this week: “The measurement of cliff erosion at Pennington Point has been brought up to date for our Beach Management Plan (BMP) project. The Plymouth Coastal Observatory’s aerial images of the coastline, the latest of which was taken by a drone in March 2015, show how the cliffs at Pennington Point have retreated since 2007.”

EDDC has hired CH2M Hill Halcrow as consultants on the project and will add the photographs to its database, which features pictures of the cliffs dating back to 1946.

The spokesman added that the council will assess the cliff recession rates along the eastern beach and publish its findings later this year. Tony Burch, assistant project manager, said: “They are good pictures, we are very pleased with the quality of the information they have sent us.”