The Brittas Bay Coastcare group assisted by the Arklow group held an extra beach clean on the tuesday following the August bank holiday to compare the state of the beach and sandunes this weekend with the previous year and to assess the effectiveness of the impovements initiated by Wicklow County Council in Brittas following last years fiasco.
The Brittas coastcare group have been calling for improvements in beach management, and given the climate of cutbacks in local government and the pressure we knew we must have been exerting, were pleasantly surprised to find many of these demands were met.
These include the provision of a litter warden, a security patrol, a ride on mower and quad and trailor. While the presence of campers and revellers did not seem to be curtailed, their nuisance effect was considerably reduced from last year. There was a number of campfires and some litter, but again nothing nothing near as obnoxious as last year. Council staff also worked hard throughout the weekend to remove a lot of litter on the beach and campsites.
Well done to Wicklow County Council, Mick Ryan and Ray Hughes, Shepherd Securities and Arklow Waste Disposal on a job well done.
I have concerns about the rate of erosion at brittas bay during this winter of 08/09. I am a user of the beach weekly and have notice a huge acceleration in the destruction of the dunes. I think the litter situation is clearly under control but was wondering if there is any news of erosion and the effect of the windmills on the beach. Could it be possible that the sea is dumping its load of sand behind the windmills and then it has extra erosive power to eat away at the beach inshore. It seems that meteres of dunes on the seaward side have dissapeared and the beach is changing at an alarming rate. Has any study been carried out or is there any information of an EIS and its findings to do with the effects of the windmills on the local environment?