National Trust Formby issue warnings of dangerous cliff-like edges

Jan 28, 20161 min read

The National Trust in Formby have issued warnings to take care on the dunes.

The combination of high tides and strong winds have caused cliff-like edges which are dangerous. Please take care and don't get too close to the edge.

High Tide today is at 13:16hrs and is 8.54m.

The beach at Formby is the fastest eroding stretch of coastline the National Trust look after. It’s predicted an average of 4m a year will be lost to the sea in the next century but during the 2013/14 winter storms over three years' worth of erosion took place at once with 13m lost.

After dealing with the immediate effects of the storms – reinstating access routes to the beach, erecting new dune fences and dealing with buried rubble and historic debris washed out of the dunes – They are thinking long-term about managing the pace of change on this stretch of the Sefton Coast.

At Formby Point there was extensive coastal erosion during the eighteenth century up to about 1830. This trend reversed dramatically in the mid-nineteenth century, when Formby Point moved out (accreted) about 300 metres around its whole arc. Landowners at the time took advantage of this period to assist the advance of the dune front by means of sand trapping fences and dune management, mainly the planting of marram grass. The remains of some fences can still sometimes be seen today on the beach near Fisherman's Path.