A public consultation on the management of Hoylake beach is set to launch next week, Wirral Council has revealed.
In the summer of 2019, the Council decided to stop all management of the beach after it was strongly criticised for spraying it with glyphosate. Since then, the policy of leaving it to nature has been a hugely divisive topic locally.
While some say the local authority should not try to work against nature, others believe the growth of grass on the beach is destroying it as an amenity for families to enjoy and interventions such as ‘raking’ are needed to remove the grass.
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And now people will be able to share their thoughts on Hoylake's Beach Management Plan, with a six-week consultation process starting on Wednesday (June, 29). The consultation will run until Wednesday, August 10.
Residents and stakeholders will be asked to complete a questionnaire that will seek to find out how people use and view the beach currently and get their comments on how it should be best managed in the future.
An independent Ecology and Geomorphology survey, carried out last summer and published earlier this year, sets out how Hoylake Beach could change - in terms of beach levels and habitat development - over the next 50 years as a result of natural coastal processes and the effects of sea level rise resulting from climate change.
The findings of this report, as well as a discretionary advice document from Natural England and other relevant information that will help inform the consultation exercise, can be found – alongside the online questionnaire that people will be asked to complete – on the council’s consultation website.
As well as the online information, residents and stakeholders will also have an opportunity to speak with officers in person to get some background information and have any questions answered about the process of developing the new Beach Management Plan.
These events will take place at Hoylake Community Centre on:-
- Tuesday 12th July - 11am-7pm
- Wednesday 13th July - 11am-7pm
- Thursday 14th July - 11am-7pm
- Friday 15th July - 11am- 7pm
Though the council will be encouraging as many people as possible to complete the questionnaire online, there will be paper copies made available to those who request it. There will also be an Easy Read version of the questionnaire available. The link to book onto one of the sessions listed above will also be on the consultation web page.
The findings of this consultation will assist in the development of the objectives and a range of options for the long-term, sustainable future management of Hoylake Beach. There will be further consultation on a short list of options before councillors agree the preferred Beach Management Plan for Hoylake Beach.
The plan will be subject to a Habitat Regulations Assessment (HRA). In order for it to receive assent from Natural England, the management activities considered in the HRA need to align with Natural England’s nature conservation objectives for North Wirral Foreshore Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
The chair of the council's Environment, Climate Emergency and Transport Committee, Labour Cllr Liz Grey, told the ECHO: “It’s going to be a really fair, open consultation, and I’m quite happy with that. We’re encouraging everybody with an interest in the beach to take part because that will inform the final decision-making.
“When I became a cabinet member in 2019, this wasn’t in my portfolio. I asked if it could be delegated to us because I was determined that we were going to do this with the absolute best practice. We’ve taken a long, long time making sure we get this right.”
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