Hoylake Beach has been officially registered as a Town or Village Green (TVG) by Wirral Council's planning committee, a status that local councillors claim will lead to the clearing of vegetation from the beach. Others, however, argue the new status will not change how the beach is managed.
The registration, which took effect on October 1, followed years of campaigning by local residents. The TVG status offers the land new protections against future developments and enshrines the beach as a place for people to enjoy their pastimes.
Background to the 'green beach' debate
Much of the conversation surrounding the application related to the council's management of the beach. In 2019, Wirral Council stopped raking and spraying Hoylake Beach, leading to vegetation growing in the sand. Since then, a debate has raged within the town over the 'green beach', with many wanting the area to be restored to golden sand.
Two Hoylake councillors, Max Booth and Andrew Gardner, have been vocal about the TVG application and its potential implications. Ahead of the planning committee meeting, they shared a video on Facebook in which Cllr Gardner said the vegetation on the beach "would have to be cleared" if TVG status was approved. The councillors claim that the vegetation hinders people's ability to carry out sports and pastime activities that TVG status seeks to protect.
Conflicting views at planning committee
During the planning committee meeting this week, opinions differed over what impact, if any, the new protected status will have on the beach. Hoylake resident and town planner Thomas Hutchinson challenged the claims made by the ward councillors, saying that the new status will not directly lead to any changes in how the beach is managed.
To secure TVG status, it must be proved that an area of land has been used by a significant number of local people for sport and pastimes for an at least 20-year period. An independent inspector determined the land does meet the criteria to become a TVG.
Despite Cllr Gardner's claims, the inspector's report stated that the use of the land for sport and pastimes has "continued without material interruption to the date of the application and beyond, including during and after the change in vegetation management practices in 2019 and throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, when use of the beach for recreation and exercise in fact increased."
Legal and environmental protections
Mr Hutchinson explained to the committee that if, as Cllr Gardner claimed, the vegetation had led to a disruption in activities on the beach, the inspector would have been unable to deem the land suitable for the status, as an uninterrupted 20-year period is required. Therefore, if the TVG status could be awarded to the beach in its current state, the status will not directly mean the beach will have to be changed.
In addition to now being a Town or Village Green, Hoylake Beach is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and an area of international importance for wildlife and foreshore habitats. Jonathan Barnett, a Wirral Council lawyer, explained that there will be "no change in terms of the protections that are currently on the site by registration of TVG and it will be up to Natural England to determine whether or not any works can take place because they are still the registered body over the SSSI site."
Despite this, after the committee meeting, Cllrs Booth and Gardner again said the status will lead to the beach being cleared of vegetation.
