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People living in a seaside village could become "the UK's first climate refugees" unless coastal defences are maintained, an MP claimed.

Fairbourne, near Barmouth , Gwynedd was established more than 100 years ago and the village’s first properties were constructed on land reclaimed from the sea and are only just above sea level.

Gwynedd Council has outlined plans to continue to carry out work on sea defences but believes the village will have to be "decommissioned" in the 2040s if sea levels continue to rise.

Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville Roberts is so concerned about the prospect of the village succumbing to the sea , thaT she has invited Minister of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Claire Perry to the area to see the situation for herself.

Addressing Parliament in a debate on climate changethe Plaid Cymru MP raised Fairbourne's plight.

She said: "A village on the estuary of the River Mawddach which only has decades left before it will be under the waves according to the most thorough technical projections and the community has been told it needs to move out over the next 40 years.

"Fairbourne is a community at risk from various sources - coastal storms, rising sea levels, a river that carries mountain run off and a high groundwater table.

"The village can be defended sustainably for the next 40 years but from 2045 Gwynedd Council believe it will have to be decommissioned and from 2055 it will not be possible to defend.

"My constituents are looking like they will become the UK's first climate refugees. Climate change is thankfully now at the top of the agenda and rightly so.

"It is hugely regrettable that we are at a stage where young people are forcing us to act but it is only right that we do so with the utmost urgency."

(Image: Daily Post Wales)

She added the Minister had accepted the invitation to visit the community and see the economic, social and human cost of the situation.

Three years ago residents in Fairbourne said they were prepared to challenge Gwynedd Council in court over the plans to “decommission” the village and see its streets swallowed by the Irish Sea.

The council’s plans would see the village go through "managed realignment" before being "decommissioned" after the sea defences are abandoned in 40 years time.

Villagers dismissed the council plans as “nonsensical”.

They took issue with the assumption that sea levels will rise by more than a metre in the next century.

Campaigners said the council was relying on an “aggressive model” not used on other stretches of the coastline.

Other forecasts predict the rise will be only half as much – and by just 20cms to 30cms in the next 50 years.

A council document published in 2016 said the planned changes suggests trying to defend the village could ultimately put people’s lives at risk.