A BLOCK of beach huts has been sealed off at Canford Cliffs promenade amid concerns over a possible landslide.

Borough of Poole (BOP) has been monitoring the site following a small landslip last spring.

Workers have constructed a safety cordon in the area after engineers detected some movement in the cliffs above in recent weeks.

In February, last year, a section of cliff eroded and slipped, coming to rest half way down the cliff face.

Concerns had been raised that this eroded section could continue moving downwards, particularly in the event of heavy rain. Since then the site has been closely monitored.

Poole Beach Huts Association chairman Bob Lister told the Daily Echo: “I don’t know why they took the trees down in the first place, you would have thought they would have helped stabilise the cliffs.

“The problem is that there are some houses very close to the cliff top, so something needs to be done rather urgently.

“We have put pressure on the council so the people disadvantaged by these hut closures either got money back or got offered the opportunity to get other huts.”

A short stretch of footpath on Cliff Drive is temporarily closed.

Work to build new beach huts and seafront infrastructure at the site has also been postponed because of the situation.

A BOP spokesman explained: “In recent days there has been significant movement of the targets positioned at the location of the slip.

“This increases the risk that material could travel down to beach level and pile up at the back of the beach huts, which may be of sufficient force to damage them or cause partial collapse.

“For this reason a safety zone has been constructed in this area.”

Over the past 40 years there have been three significant cliff slips at Canford Cliffs Chine.

The first two happened in the 1970s and one of these left a block of beach huts demolished - a block which was only reinstated in 2014.

The third significant landslide took place in 1993.

Steel targets have been installed at regular intervals along and down a 300 metre section of cliff at Canford Cliffs. These targets have been monitored with a laser scanner to accurately measure their positions.

The area where the slip has occurred is part of the Poole Cliffs Site of Nature Conservation Interest, managed by BOP.

It provides an ideal habitat for the rare sand lizard and Dartford Warbler, which are both protected species.

Over the next few months key species will also be monitored at the site.