DISAPPEARING BEACH

Photo's: Lisfannon beach after the dumping.

Dear Ian.

Last weeks vandalism on the Swan Park Bridge in Buncrana was a sad meaningless attack on a beautiful structure. I will make a guess that the incident was totally unprovoked and absolutely no thought went into the destruction at all. I would think that a stone was loose on the wall, so it was pushed into the river because it made a cool splashing noise when it hit the water. The other stones that followed would have been sent into the water to repeat the sensation. Vandalism of this type has been in our culture for many years and some might blame the actions on drug use (adrenalin in this case I think), boredom or ignorance. So what excuse has Buncrana Council got for destroying a large area of the coastline on the outskirts of the town?

I walk my dog on Lisfannon beach and over the last week or so the diggers have moved thousands of tonnes of boulders onto the beach. This is to make a storage pit for the silt that is to be dredged out of the Swilly, which will allow the new ferry access to the pier. We lost a good section of the beach when the golf course expanded, now we are loosing a load more. The council say that a set of steps will be put in place so walkers can leave the beach, walk over the golf course and down some more steps to get onto the sand again. That’s really taken into account people with disabilities I don’t think! The coastline will change and what will happen when this pit is full of silt? The silt won’t stop coming to shore because the pit is full, you only have to look at the marina in Faughan to see that. Will the council build another one of these pits, taking up more of the beach? The ferry will hopefully attract tourists to come to the town, they will be greeted by thousands of tonnes of stone covering what once was a lovely stretch of sand, now that’s what I call premeditated vandalism!

Regards, N.S. Buncrana

Ian replies:
I went to Lisfannon to see the work for myself. The silt, as you say won’t stop coming when these pits are full. I don’t know much about how silt moves in an estuary but I would have thought that it would be as effective to put the silt collected back into the Swilly as opposed to dumping it on the beach. This work will be an ongoing process now that it has started. I have no doubt that the ferry will be a positive move to improve the infrastructure of the town and will attract tourists to the area. Let’s just hope they still want to come when the developers have finished!

LET’S HEAR SOME GOOD NEWS
When a story such as the Swan Park saga hits the headlines it plays into the hands of the offenders. There is no fun in trashing something that is never seen. The more prominent the spot to attack, the better. If it makes the paper then the offenders have succeeded in getting a reaction. The news is full of stories such as this, fuelling a constant wave of mindless damage across the developed world. I wonder what would happen if these incidents weren’t given any publicity. The stories in the papers could be about all of the positive things that young people do for their community. Let’s try to concentrate on all the optimistic stories around Inishowen and stop fuelling negativity. Vandalism won’t go away easily, but at least the offenders won’t get the satisfaction of getting their handiwork printed in the paper!

UPDATE

The EPA were called out to the site and work stopped after it was found that tonnes of household waste was tipped into the hole, too late though I might add. Items such as fridges asbestos and batteries were found. The Municipal golf course do have a few more hoes though!

Environmental.