WHEN I first moved to this stretch of North-west coastline a few years ago, I was excited to think I was once again going to live by the seaside.

was brought up in a town on the South Coast, which had a steeply sloping pebble beach with fishing boats and impressive tides, and there was a pier which stretched out over deep water where you could fish for sea bass, grey mullet and plaice.

I loved looking at the sea, especially when it is angry, with foam-flecked breakers crashing onto the shore in a stiff breeze. And when the weather is calm, there’s nothing like a refreshing swim in salt water.
Then for many years I lived in landlocked isolation from the briny delights of the seaside.

What a disappointment then, to arrive in Southport, to find the beach a dull expanse of flat grey sand, and where the sea is most days just a distant smudge on the horizon.

Great for sand yachting and kite flying, but not much else.

With all this talk of Southport as a classic resort and plans for improving the beachfront area, why is no-one thinking big about the beach itself, which surely should be a seaside resort’s best asset?
Here we have people complaining about sand extraction companies taking the stuff away, as if there isn’t enough to go round.

If I was in charge, I’d pay them to do it.

I’d want a massive mile-wide channel dredged out of the shoreline so the tide could come in and create a proper swimming beach.

I know it sounds like an implausible engineering feat, but if you can create beaches by bringing in loads of sand, like has been done in Bournemouth – and on a massive scale in Dubai – would it not be possible to get the same result here by taking sand away?

Funfairs and conference hotels are all very well, but let’s get the basics right.

If the building companies don’t want the Southport sand, perhaps it could be taken  down the coast to Formby, where apparently the dunes are receding at an alarming rate.

Perhaps I am living in Wonderland like Lewis Carroll:
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
“If this were only cleared away,
They said, “it would be grand!”
“If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said
“That they could get it clear?
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
Just a thought…
m.montgomery@champnews.com