Southport’s beach will be lost forever it’s been revealed.
Council chiefs have told enquiring residents that the ugly looking grass taking over the south side of the beach will continue for years to come and they won’t do anything about it.
Council bosses also tried to claim it would help combat climate change.
In a letter to high profile Southport champion and estate agent Gavin McGuire, council bosses said ““The spread of the saltmarsh and accretion of land at Southport beach along the southern shore of the Ribble estuary is a natural process which has been progressing over thousands of years.”
“The land on the coast at Southport is currently naturally accreting and has been for a long time. In 1900 the tide previously reached as far into the town centre as Nevill Street.”
“A number of factors – Climate change, increases in fertiliser, the end of dredging in the Ribble, rising sea levels and other factors – are all conspiring to make it easier for that salt marsh vegetation to spread.
“Having said that, the aforementioned saltmarsh is actually an invaluable coastal defence and this is something which has been understood for hundreds of years, dating back most recently to the Victorians, who were aware of its invaluable coastal properties.”
“Sand dunes are now forming in front of the accreting land between Ainsdale and Birkdale – part of the process that has been happening on this coast for 7,000 years, and they already harbour many of the scarce and rare species the Sefton coast is internationally famous for.”
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