THE gabion baskets at Summerleaze Beach in Bude are to be removed to manage the ever-increasing height of the sand dunes.

Cornwall Councillor for Bude, Peter La Broy gave the update recently, announcing a new collaboration between Cornwall Council, Bude-Stratton Town Council and the Environment Agency to maintain the dunes.

The sand dunes at Summerleaze have been allowed to erode over the last 25 to 30 years and the metal gabion baskets, which were put in place originally to retain the dune and have since worn from the weather over the years, seem to have contributed to the overall size increase of the dune, causing ‘cliff-edging’ on parts of the structure.

Cllr La Broy had concerns that the trapping of the sand on the dune has been causing the sand to be lost on the beach and the harbour area, causing difficulties for boats bottoming on rocks rather than a sand-bed.

The joint collaboration between the three authorities will see some of the gabion baskets removed to make the dune safe and approximately three to four course varying along the width of the dune will be removed to allow the sand to naturally fall back into the river and flow back out onto the beach.

This will see a reduction in the height of the dune, which will take place naturally without losing natural habitat for the wildlife living and thriving within the dune.

Cllr La Broy said: “There will be works here going on in Bude. We’re very pleased to have got this far — it’s taken us probably about a year or so of talks to get to this point.

“By summer 2020 we hope there will be quite a difference to this little part of Bude and little area of the river, and what’s going on with the management of the sand and the overall beach area.”