A key council figure claims a vital report into the future of Hoylake Beach supports a ‘natural’ option, in a major blow to those hoping for ‘golden sands’ to return.
The beach has been a controversial issue since 2019, when it had to be temporarily closed to the public due to the use of the chemical glyphosate.
Cllr Liz Grey, chair of Wirral Council’s Environment, Climate Change and Transport Committee, and cabinet member for the environment at the time, suspended all management of the beach following this incident.
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Since then, some have campaigned for beach management to return in the form of raking, which they hope will restore ‘golden sands’ to the beach.
Wirral Council’s scientific survey into Hoylake Beach is a key part of the process which will decide whether or not the beach is raked from next spring onwards to get rid of vegetation and restore an artificial sandy beach.
In what could be a crucial intervention, Cllr Liz Grey, said: “The report into the beach shows what we expected which is that there are arguments for both raking an artificial sandy area and leaving the beach in its developing natural state.
“However, it is quite clear that the arguments in support of a natural beach are stacking up as more research comes in on biodiversity, climate change and flood threats. The data does show quite clearly the greater benefits of a natural beach.”
But this did not mean raking would definitely not happen going forward.
Cllr Grey added: “I still want to see a compromise solution if at all possible and we still await public consultation on the potential options for management but it will always be up to Natural England to decide what can and can’t be done on the beach.
“They will be guided not just by public opinion but by the science and the data.
“I just hope people can behave appropriately and use logic and clear reasoning to make their points, rather than insults and abuse while we wait for the fair and proper agreed process to complete.”
The study looked at two options for the way the council could run the beach.
The first was ‘do nothing’, the natural option which will allow vegetation to grow, while the second was ‘do everything’ by managing the beach continually and removing all vegetation, which could be done through raking.
The study showed beach levels in Hoylake will rise over the next 50 years, based on how the beach has developed in the past and the predicted sea-level rise.
The rate of increase in beach levels is predicted to outpace sea-level rise and consequently beach levels will rise and migrate seawards.
Josh Styles, a botanical specialist who has been studying Hoylake Beach since 2019, said the study showed that natural ecosystems benefit society and that overall leaving the beach to nature had many more benefits than harms.
But Wendy Bennett, who represents the campaign groups Friends of Hoylake and West Kirby Beaches, and Save Hoylake Beach, disagreed.
Ms Bennett said: “This report has exposed how the council and other pro-grass pressure groups/individuals have manipulated truth, told half truths, and have propagated total untruths.”
Going into the detail of the report, Ms Bennett said the council had claimed there will only be a small strip of vegetation close to the promenade, but the report said salt marsh will develop and increase in size seaward in the coming years.
She added that the report did not meaningfully analyse the socio-economic impact of “rewilding” on the beach.
Ms Bennett said the report did not tell us anything we did not already know.
She added: “At the January Wirral Council Environment Committee [Cllr Grey] publicly proposed a compromise solution for Hoylake Beach.
“Our two groups are happy to discuss a compromise solution with the council which we suggest should be designed to take into account the views and beliefs of all parties.
“This is something we have been pressing for for over two years but so far they have not engaged with us.”
Conservative councillor Andrew Gardner, who represents Hoylake and Meols, said: “Yet again another Wirral Labour vanity project has blown up in Labour councillor’s faces.
“This was a very expensive report to tell us what we and most Hoylake people already knew – the promised dune system won’t happen.
“If it did it wouldn’t provide a flood defence, it would actually increase flood risk, and would risk being an environmental catastrophe."
Cllr Gardner added: “In the bi-polar scenarios covered by the report the wind blown sand will likely cost a six figure sum to clear from the streets of Hoylake.
“We have a better idea – go back to the old beach management program of raking and the equilibrium we used to all enjoy, that, in relative terms, cost coppers.
“We can no longer indulge Wirral Labour with these ruinous vanity projects with fiscally incontinent downsides and negligible upsides.”
But Jane Turner, who runs the Facebook page Hoylake Beach - the evidence, came to a different conclusion.
She said: “The independent report told us what we already knew. There are phenomenal amounts of sand arriving, and as predicted 20 years ago by the previous council report, we only have a few years before the sand overtops the promenade.
“Whether you want Hoylake to have an artificial sandy beach or a natural green beach is irrelevant. It [the sand] is coming at the equivalent of 11 truckloads a day and all we get to decide is where we want the sand to be - mostly on the beach or mostly in the town.”
Outlining the process for deciding how the local authority will deal with the beach in the future, a Wirral Council spokesperson said: “The findings of the independent Ecology and Geomorphology survey have now been received and have been published on our consultation website.
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“They have also been shared directly with key stakeholders and individuals who requested direct updates via email.
“These reports will help to inform the next stage of the development of a new Hoylake Beach Management Plan, which is a public consultation exercise. This will be launched shortly.”
