Wind blown sand on Summerleaze car park - we are listening

Sand recycling and actions to reduce sand on the car park at Summerleaze

Background

The Future Coast Bude project is funded through the Defra Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme. The focus of the project is about promoting adaptation actions to help communities transition away from eroding coastlines.

The coastline at Summerleaze is evolving, and rising sea levels will increasingly place pressure on nearby buildings and the car park. This project aims to work closely with the community and key partner organisations to explore future options for the area, ensuring that vital public facilities and amenities are preserved and planned for in a sustainable, managed way.

The immediate challenge

One of the challenges at Summerleaze car park, owned by Cornwall Council, is the area south of the RNLI lifeboat station where dunes have been unable to establish. Because this space must remain clear for the RNLI to launch their boat, the sand is exposed to prevailing south‑westerly winds, which blow it into the car park and cause it to accumulate there.

The policies

The coastal sand dune at Summerleaze is categorised as a priority habitat by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and the Bude Neighbourhood Development Plan policy intent is to 'protect and enhance' the dunes at Summerleaze.

The Shoreline Management Plan policy for this location is Managed Realignment. This means changing the position of the shoreline in a controlled way, such as by slowing down erosion or creating habitats to help manage flooding.

A Marine Monitoring Organisation licence would be required for any work taking place below mean high water.

Feedback from the community

The project has listened to feedback from the community on their concerns about sand accumulating on Summerleaze car park, including receiving responses from over 250 people on an online survey.

Around half of people who responded to this survey had experienced problems caused by sand in the car park, and people felt very strongly that this wind-blown sand should be moved.

In particular, those with disabilities were particularly affected by this sand, with it causing issues with accessing the beach.

What the project is doing

The Future Coast Bude project team have agreed to facilitate conversations between internal Cornwall Council teams, as well as wider stakeholders, to understand whether there are any short-term options that can be considered to:

a) remove sand from the car park and

b) reduce the amount of sand that blows on to the car park in the future.

These discussions have been guided by four key principles:

• Sand dunes intercept energy from storm tides and waves, in turn helping reduce flood and erosion risks in areas behind them. As such, the Summerleaze dunes provide these benefits to parts of Bude. This is recognised and set out in the Shoreline Management Plan for Summerleaze beach.
• Sand should be retained in the coastal cell to support a healthy beach (i.e. no off-site removal).
• Sand can only be relocated to areas above mean high water spring, negating the need for licences.
• Any parts of the dune adjacent to the car park with established vegetation should not be disturbed.

A number of options were considered by a range of stakeholders who have involvement in the Summerleaze car park.

The agreed proposal is:

1. Cornwall Council Car Parks will fund Cormac to clear wind-blown sand from several spaces in Summerleaze car park in March 2026. The work will take place after the high spring tides but before the tourist season begins. Sand will only be removed from areas where dunes are not established, ensuring that the dune remains stable and that RNLI operations and public safety are not affected. The cleared sand will be placed at the front of the dune, above the high-water mark, along the exposed rock armour. No licences are required for this activity. This approach is considered the best way to protect existing vegetation and habitats while allowing the sand to naturally reintegrate into the dune system over time. Updates and information about the project will be shared on the Future Coast Bude website.
   
   
2. Sand will be cleared on a more frequent basis, for the 12 months from March 2026 – March 2027 by Bude-Stratton Town Council Facilities Team. The Town Council will be reimbursed for the work by Cornwall Council car parks team.

This process will be undertaken for the period of the project, up until March 2027. Community consultation will be taking place in parallel to this work, the outputs of which will help to guide any long-term plan for the car park.

As well as recycling the sand back on to the sand dune, the project team have been working with a coastal engineering specialist, the RNLI and Bude Dunes Group to co-design some options to reduce the amount of sand that reaches the car park. Options that have been considered include:

• Narrowing the path back to 2001 size, with a greater area established and stabilised with grasses.
• Reducing public access to this area and encouraging use just for RNLI access.
• Realigning the direction of the path so that it is not exposed to the prevailing wind.
• Putting in options which would help stabilise the dune, for example a boardwalk or matting that would help hold sand in placed.
• Moving the RNLI access way to another location.

These options are being worked up with the hope that some of them will be implemented in Spring 2026.

Cornwall Councillor, Peter LaBroy said, “Wind blown sand on Summerleaze car park has become an increasing challenge. I am delighted that through the work of the Defra funded Future Coast Bude project, a short-term arrangement has been agreed. This will alleviate the existing pressure on parking at Summerleaze and give the community of Bude time to get involved in the consultation events that will be happening in 2026. These events will outline the priorities and direction for the coastline in Bude in the long-term, including decisions about how to adapt to future pressures.”