‘They’ve stolen our beach’

The beaches of the Gower Peninsula have been damaged by offshore dredging, environmentalists claim — but the Welsh Assembly is refusing to ban the practice. More than 500,000 cubic metres of sand have been taken from Helwick Bank, which lies two miles off the Gower Peninsula, since large-scale dredging operations started in 1993. Even though the sand has not been taken directly from the beach, locals say that the offshore dredging has resulted in coastal sand being depleted.