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August
11, 2005
Quad bikes could be banned from Berrow and
Brean beaches
Quad
bikers and sand racers could soon be banned from the beaches at
Berrow and Brean amid fears that they are causing environmental
damage and may even result in potential court action.
Increasing
numbers of quad bikes, motorbikes and cars are used on the sand
dunes and beaches which, according to local parish councillors,
is resulting in the damage to wildlife, shattering the peace of
the area and putting other beach users at risk.
 Local
by-laws are already in place to ban vehicles from the beaches,
but these are now dated and not tight enough to be used against
the quad bikes which are being used in the area this summer.
A
meeting of parish councils urged Sedgemoor District Council to
put pressure on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM)
to process its applications for a new, more rigorous law to put
an end to their use.
Burnham-On-Sea
district and town councillor Louise Parkin was at the meeting
and said steps should be taken to protect not only the environment
and public, but also the council itself.
"It
is mainly quad bikes and motorbikes using the dunes, and there
are cars which use the beaches to go racing around," she
said.
"As
well as the damage this does to the environment - the dunes in
particular are very fragile and are a beach defence - it is also
dangerous. The
fact is we live in a compensation culture. We have a duty of care
and have to be extraordinarily vigilant about these things."
Wardens
are on hand during the summer months to keep the problem in check,
but in the winter it can become a dangerous free-for-all according
to some.
Andrea
Johnstone, chairman of Berrow Parish Council, said: "People
know the wardens are not around in the winter so we get people
coming from all over the region with trailers full of quads and
mini-motorbikes. They
go up and down the beach and dunes, and race around the beach."
While
backing the call for the introduction of the new bylaws, she believes
year-round wardens may be the only way to really solve the problem.
RELATED
LINKS:
Beach guide to Burnham, Brean
and Berrow
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