The National Trust has been accused of turning a beach into an “eyesore” after its decision to remove old sea defences exposed piles of rubbish.
The conservation charity announced it had removed “failing” coastal defences at Middle Beach in Studland, Dorset, in September last year, allowing “nature to realign the coastline”.
The beach is part of the larger Studland Bay which inspired Toy Town in Enid Blyton’s Noddy.
It made the move in response to coastal erosion, which it said had seen cliffs fall by up to four metres in a single night.
Taking away the defences has however intensified erosion along the coast and exposed an old rubbish site in the sand, leaving waste washed up on the beach, The Times reports.
Nick Boulter, chairman of Studland parish council, said, according to the newspaper: “It’s horrible. All that waste which has been dumped into the sandy bank for the past 50 to 100 years is coming out of the cliff, creating an eyesore.
“I’ve heard that the poor National Trust volunteers are down there every day filling ten bags of plastic waste.”
“The worrying thing is we’ve not had any bad storms yet so it could get much worse,” he added.
The National Trust said it was allowing ‘nature to realign the coastline’ at the beach by removing the sea defences
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NATIONAL TRUST/FLEUR CASTELL
Tracey Churcher, National Trust general manager for Purbeck, said the organisation planned to assess the situation after the end of the winter stormy weather.
She said it was continuing “daily cleaning” of the beach to remove rubbish.
The National Trust confirmed in September it had closed the beach for safety reasons while its project was underway.
Sarah Coggins, coast and marine adviser, said at the time: “Holding the cliff in place with a hard structure like gabion baskets meant that the shoreline was not naturally aligned with the coast.
The National Trust said removing the sea defences is allowing the beach to ‘replenish itself’
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RICHARD ALLEN/NATIONAL TRUST
“When waves hit the gabions, they bounced off causing erosion of the sand in front of the defences.
“Over time, this caused a 350m section of the beach to be submerged by the tide most of the time making it inaccessible.
“Removing the artificial structures is allowing the beach to replenish itself using sandy material from the cliff.
“Over time, it’s predicted that this will result in the formation of a sandy cove, with more beach for people to enjoy.”
She added that while the effects “look extreme at first”, projections had shown that over the next two decades the cliff would realign to form a gentler slope.
“This will help make the coastline more resilient to the impacts of climate change, offering more protection to the relocated facilities in the car park,” Ms Coggins explained.