The Future of Formby Proposals for the Care of the Coast

The future of Formby Proposals for the care of the coast

The Formby Coast…

The National Trust looks after over 775 miles of coastline, with a commitment to protect it ‘for ever, for everyone’.

Here at Formby we have been considering what this means for the future care of this unique and rapidly changing stretch of Sefton coastline.

The coast is transforming before our eyes, as Formby’s sand dunes roll inwards at a rate of 3-4 metres a year. This motion creates some of the best mobile sand dune habitats in the UK.

The natural beauty of the area means it is much loved by local residents, and attracts large numbers of visitors from further aﬁeld.

Together, we need to ﬁnd a way to protect the landscape and secure the future of rare habitats. We also need to ensure this special part of the coast can be enjoyed by all those who love it. Many parts of the Formby coast are thriving. There are large areas of unspoilt natural beauty, and the moving dunes support populations of rare species including the northern dune tiger beetle, natterjack toad and sand lizard. The beach is an international site for overwintering seabirds and the woodlands are home to red squirrels. Thousands of visitors come to Formby every year to enjoy this stretch of coastline.

In planning for the future, we need to carefully balance conservation with the needs of visitors and the local community. Busy days put pressure on the natural environment, and at times our current visitor facilities struggle to meet demand.

We also have to work with our shifting shoreline. As the dunes roll back, some areas are subject to ‘coastal squeeze’. For example, erosion of the frontal dunes at Victoria Road means that the dune habitat is narrowing: squeezed between the beach and the developed land of the car park and woodland behind.

The movement of the dunes also reduces car parking capacity year on year as rubble from the base of the car park is exposed through erosion and deposited on the beach. We need to ﬁnd a way to provide adequate parking, and a safe, natural environment for visitors to the beach.

Looking forward

In 2017, the National Trust began caring for an additional 204 hectares of land at Lifeboat Road and Ravenmeols Local Nature Reserve. We now have the opportunity to join up habitats, restore natural processes and develop new ways to engage visitors with nature across the whole of the Formby coast.

“We need to work with our local community to ﬁnd the best ways to adapt to changing demands on the coast. We’re committed to enhancing the experience of our visitors whilst being at the forefront of good practice in nature conservation.”

Andrew Brockbank Countryside Manager, National Trust Formby The Formby Point project

The Formby Point project has been set up to seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of the future. We will work to deliver better nature conservation across Formby’s dune coast, taking opportunities to restore and reconnect dune habitats.

We are committed to involving the local community in the development of plans. In 2017, we held a number of public consultations across Formby. We talked to local residents, visitors, business groups and other stakeholders, and collected almost 300 comments detailing the community’s hopes, concerns and ideas for the future.

To see the consultation report, go to: www.bit.ly/2vpDx5k Formby Point project: where are we now?

Community consultations have helped to shape our ideas and now we want your contribution to the resulting proposals.

We intend to:

• Prioritise nature conservation • Improve visitor access and enjoyment of the site • Develop new ways to involve people in caring for the Formby coast

This will ensure that we meet our commitments as the National Trust. We’re here to look after special places and the places people live, create experiences that move, teach and inspire, and ensure a healthy, beautiful and natural environment. Following our discussions with the Formby community, we propose to:

1. Improve nature conservation at Formby:

• Work with coastal processes and embrace natural change • Enhance and connect habitats along the coast in our care • Protect the wild and remote character of the areas to the North and South of the site • Ensure that heavily used visitor routes are robust, and divert ‘busy day’ visitors from vulnerable areas

2. Build relationships and work more closely with the Formby community:

• Create more opportunities for public involvement in the care of the Formby coast • Develop new traﬃc and parking strategies, and communicate better with residents and visitors at busy times • Identify ways to work more closely with Formby’s business community

3. Improve the experience of those who visit the site:

• Provide catering, toilets, and a place for people to meet at Lifeboat Road • Oﬀer visitors varied opportunities so they can enjoy the site in their own way, all year round • Maintain visitor parking across the site, and look at options for replacing spaces being lost at Victoria Road car park

The following pages explain why we have chosen these proposals, and what they are likely to involve. Improving nature conservation at Formby

The National Trust is a conservation organisation, and local people told us that caring for nature was important for them too. We have identiﬁed opportunities to improve our rare habitats by connecting them to one another, increasing their size and improving their quality.

We wish to prioritise habitat improvement and focus on key vulnerable species, including natterjack toads and sand lizards. Working with coastal We are also committed to managing the woodland habitat of Formby’s famous and processes and embracing much loved red squirrels. natural change

We want to restore the dune habitat near to Victoria Road, which is the area under most pressure. Making space for natural processes of dune mobility will be key to this.

Enhancing and joining up habitats along the coast Currently, the dune system is broken up by Victoria Road car park. Linking up the dunes to the North and South of Victoria Road could To ﬁnd out more about what makes a healthy mobile improve the resilience of key species like dune system, take a look at: bit.ly/2voAeLt natterjack toads and sand lizards. Protecting the wild, remote character of areas to the North and South People told us how they use the site and what they love about it. We want to ensure that quieter areas to the north of Victoria Road and at the Ravenmeols Local Nature Reserve retain their wilder, undiscovered feel.

To do this we will focus on how people move through the landscape, where we place visitor facilities and how we mark paths.

Ensuring that heavily used visitor routes are robust and divert ‘busy day’ visitors from vulnerable areas We want to ensure that we protect the most fragile parts of the landscape, and provide robust, accessible routes for those who want to get to the beach quickly on a sunny day.

We are undertaking a zoning exercise to establish which areas are most resilient, and can best support the larger numbers of people that visit at busy times. Encouraging people to visit at quieter times, and developing new traﬃc and parking strategies

Formby attracts a lot of visitors. Many people feel that it attracts too many at peak times. We would like to spread our visitors out more evenly across the year and we do not wish to increase visitor numbers at busy times. Better communication with potential visitors before they make the decision to travel to Formby is important. We also want to plan events and facilities to make Formby a more attractive place Increasing community to visit at quieter times of the year. involvement and We need to find ways to reduce the pressure of participation traffic on the surrounding area at busy times. People have suggested we should be supporting Many people have said that they would greater use of cycling, walking and public welcome opportunities to become more transport, providing off-site parking and involved in caring for the Formby coast. improving signage. We can’t solve this alone so we aim to set up a working group with key We know the support and involvement of local partners to investigate these ideas. people is essential to deliver this project and to look after Formby in the future.

We will develop new ways for people of all ages to get involved. We will prioritise giving our staﬀ and volunteers the skills and conﬁdence to engage with people, working closely with local schools and other groups. Building links with Formby's business community

Local people told us that they wanted the National Trust to be more involved and supportive of the Formby community. We want to work in partnership with our neighbours to achieve this. We will also focus on identifying whether the large number of people who visit the Formby coast can bring additional beneﬁts to the village and the community as a whole. Improving the experience of visitors

We wish to make better provision for our visitors and ensure that they have a wonderful experience, whether they visit at quiet times or on our busiest days.

Giving visitors a range of ways to enjoy the Formby Improving visitor facilities coast, all year round at Lifeboat Road

We know that people want different things from In our community consultations many people their visit. We want to offer a range of ways to told us they would like a hub where visitors can enjoy Formby. This could include family nature meet, find out more about the Formby coast and activities, sharing stories about the history of buy food and drinks. Formby or simply enjoying a day on the beach. We want to encourage people to visit Formby at We have looked at a number of possible quieter times throughout the year. locations. We favour Lifeboat Road as this area is less affected by coastal change, but we need to understand fully the impact of traffic movements at busy times.

We want to provide toilets and catering at Lifeboat Road. One suggestion is that this could take the form of an outlet with some indoor seating and a covered area for use by schools and other groups. This could improve the experience of those visiting the site, and the income brought in by the catering sales would also contribute to achieving our conservation goals. Maintain parking across the site, and consider options for replacing parking spaces being lost at Victoria Road

Parking at Formby meets visitor demand on most days of the year, but sunny days can result in long queues. Some residents and visitors would like to see more on-site parking. However, increasing the amount of on-site parking risks attracting even more visitors and could threaten our conservation goals.

Given the pressure on busy days we would like to maintain the number of parking spaces we already have. We would need to make sure that this can be achieved in accordance with our Shifting Shores Policy and our commitment to ‘a healthy coastline, shaped by natural forces’.

As capacity is lost at Victoria Road car park, we need to identify options for replacing these parking spaces elsewhere.

To ﬁnd out more about the National Trust’s approach to the shifting shores in its care, take a look at: bit.ly/2Ax5CgS We also need to…

…ﬁnd a solution at Victoria Road car park

We are faced with big decisions at Victoria Road. The location of the car park detracts from the development of a healthy dune system. As the frontal dunes retreat, the sand covers more parking spaces every year, and at the same time rubble that was tipped to form the original car park base falls on to the beach. This is unsightly and presents a health and safety risk.

We have taken a lot of expert advice. We cannot stop this process; coastal change is forecast to continue indeﬁnitely. Exploring the remaining options is a priority and we will involve local people in this key decision. This will then underpin how we manage our Victoria Road car park and beach in the future, and inﬂuence our decisions around car parking across the site.

…provide the necessary resources to support the plans

Looking after Lifeboat Road and carrying out the suggested work will require additional resources, including new staﬀ, equipment and facilities.

These will need to be sustainable in the long term, and the income from catering and other commercial activities will have an important role here.

We need to identify in more detail what is required, and when and how it is best provided. We will also need to consider the expansion of our existing base at Blundell Avenue to accommodate new staﬀ and equipment. Next steps…

Consultation with the Formby community will help shape how things progress. The next steps will also involve:

• Seeking internal approvals to develop more detailed proposals • Securing funding from both within and outside the organisation • Working with local people and stakeholders on the detail of the project • Deciding how we respond to coastal change at Victoria Road For alternative formats, please call us on 01704 878 591 or email [email protected]