The team behind a bid to bring a bell to Happisburgh beach is brimming with joy because a final hurdle has been cleared. 

The Time and Tide Bell had been threatened with a hefty bill from the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in its process of granting a licence for the installation.

But now a deal has been made to limit the MMO’s processing time to around 32 hours, meaning the licence will cost the team a maximum of around £4,000, rather than the £6,000+ sum they had earlier feared, because the project was in a protected marine habitat. 

North Norfolk News: Rob Payne, steering group leaderRob Payne, steering group leader (Image: Denise Bradley)

Robert Payne, the project’s committee chairman, said: “They originally decided to put us in the same category as commercial dredging and North Sea gas rigs.

“Now we’re very happy, particularly because this allows us to move on - the whole process up to now has been quite slow. It’s lovely that now we can just focus on the logistics of getting the bell in place.”

Mr Payne thanked North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker for taking up the matter with the government’s Defra ministers, which led to the MMO reviewing and then capping its costs.  

North Norfolk News: The Happisburgh bell will be one of a string of other Time and Tide bells installed at various points around the Great British coastThe Happisburgh bell will be one of a string of other Time and Tide bells installed at various points around the Great British coast (Image: Denise Bradley)

Mr Payne said: “We need a bit more money as a contingency, but we’re now going to carry on and aim for an installation sometime between March and April.”

But the bell will not ring at all when it is initially put on the beach. That will first happen after a dedication day party, at which the bell’s clapper will be installed.

Mr Payne said there would be a number of speakers at the event, including the author and poet Kevin Crossley-Holland, who has composed a dedication that will be inscribed on the clapper itself.

North Norfolk News: Rob Payne, steering group leader, back right, and some of the team with the Happisburgh Tide and Time Bell. From left, Liz Dixon; Mark Howson; and Phil HorsleyRob Payne, steering group leader, back right, and some of the team with the Happisburgh Tide and Time Bell. From left, Liz Dixon; Mark Howson; and Phil Horsley (Image: Denise Bradley)

The Happisburgh bell will be one of a string of other Time and Tide bells installed at various points around the Great British coast.

Mr Payne said it would be a delight to see the project finally brought to fruition.

He said: “It has taken much longer than for the other bells, mainly because we are the smallest community that will have a bell”.