Harmless? Taking Pebbles & Other Material from the beach is illegal.
The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.
Blaise Pascal
Hands up if you’ve ever taken pebbles from a beach.
All year round people head to the beaches in the Folkestone & Hythe District, or elsewhere along the coast of the UK, but be sure to leave your pebble collection on the shore, or you could face up to a £1000 fine.
In 2018, a holidaymaker was ordered to return a bag of pebbles to the Cornish beach they were taken from, or pay a £1,000 fine.
It is illegal to remove pebbles and other material from a beach in the UK.
Under section 18 of the Coastal Protection Act 1949, the removal of any natural material such as sand and pebbles from public beaches in the UK is illegal.
s18(1) states:
Subject to the provisions of this section, and notwithstanding anything contained in any other enactment, it shall be unlawful to excavate or remove any materials (other than minerals more than fifty feet below the surface) on, under or forming part of any portion of the seashore to which the provisions of this section are applied.
It may seem like a perfectly harmless thing to do, but removing pebbles and other natural matter from the coast is in fact damaging to the environment. Every stone removed could have an impact on coastal erosion, natural flood defences and wildlife habitats
As suggested by the name of the Act, and as stated above, taking natural material from a beach in the UK is illegal, in order to protect Britain’s beaches “against erosion and encroachment by the sea”.
Pebbles and other natural matter act as a natural sea defence against coastal erosion, which many experts warn has become even more of an issue due to climate change.
According to the Act it is the responsibility of Folkestone & Hythe District Council to enforce the Act, but of course they are skint and don’t enforce it.
One must also remember there are privately owned beaches in the district. Sir Roger De Haan via his companies owns the beach from the Harbour Arm to the end of Shoreline. So before taking pebbles or other materials, always check beforehand to avoid getting into trouble.
Beach management work in our district helps protect more than 3,000 homes and businesses along our coast from flooding. It costs Folkestone & Hythe District Council hundreds of thousands of pounds for this biannual replenishment of our beaches between Folkestone & Hythe.
Cllr Stephen Scoffham (Green) – Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Bio Diversity – said:
“This work helps shield the sea wall, further reducing the possibility of flooding and coastal erosion over the five-mile stretch.
Officially, the Marine Conservation Society advises beachgoers to “leave only footprints and take only photos”.
Our advice is you want to take something, take plastic. If everyone who attended our beaches in our district took one piece of plastic away with them, this would really start tackling the plastic on our beaches.
The Shepway Vox Team
The Velvet Voices of Vexatiousness
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