A COASTAL community has vowed to continue its fight to have long-term sea defences installed on its shore after the Environment Agency refused to fund the project.

Bootle beach is currently categorised under the government’s Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) as “no active intervention”.

That would mean the beach and nearby Eskmeals gun range road would be allowed to wash away.

An emergency meeting was held with villagers, Copeland Borough Council, Cumbria County Council and the Environment Agency in a bid to get the government to change the policy and defend the beach. (more…)

A PLAN to stop a road collapsing into the sea is being held back by red tape, it is claimed.

The road leading to Eskmeals Gun Range, near Bootle, is seven feet away from the highest water level during a storm.

Fears are mounting that one or two extreme waves will result in the road falling into the sea.

Gun range managers QinetiQ plans to install concrete blocks on the beach to protect the road, but needs permission from “a number of parties” before the work can be carried out. (more…)

The future of Cumbria’s Eskmeals firing range is in doubt because the only access road is in danger of being washed away.

The Ministry of Defence gun range, operated by QinetiQ, employs 82 people.

But the only access, from the A595 at Bootle in west Cumbria, is at risk from coastal erosion. (more…)