Plans for new steps to access Pembroke beach
CONCRETE STEPS will be installed to provide safe access to Pembroke beach, subject to a successful planning application.
Agriculture, Countryside & Land Management Services has submitted plans to replace the wooden steps that were removed in January due to storm damage.
‘This application includes proposals to improve access to the beach by altering the anti-tank wall so it provides stepped access and install cantilever concrete steps to the beach, whilst at the same time providing protection for the small embryo dune forming in the SSS [Site of Special Significance],’ said Environment services officer Lisa Duggan.
‘This area is well-serviced with conveniences, kiosks and car parks. Access to Pembroke Bay is provided by a set of concrete steps at the far western end of the bay, a slipway at the western car park and until January of this year, a set of wooden ‘‘up and over’’ steps in the vicinity of the Beach House Cafe.
‘The timber steps were damaged in the January storms this year and ACLMS instructed States Works to remove the steps following advice from a public service engineer that they had become unsafe.’
Since the removal of the steps, ACLMS officers have met with representatives from the Beach House to discuss replacing them to the east of the cafe.
‘It is intended that the installation of a set of steps in this location will prevent visitors to the beach from accessing it by trampling the embryo dune located approximately 100m to the east,’ the application said.
‘There is potential that the biodiversity of the immediate area may marginally improve as a result of decreased trampling to the embryo dune by providing formal access in the vicinity of this car park.’
It is not believed that the proposed access arrangements would expose the cafe during stormy weather.
‘While it is acknowledged that overtopping does occur at Pembroke, in the specific area where it is proposed to create the steps in the anti-tank wall, overtopping does not occur regularly.
‘Provision has been made in the design to include storm boards at the opening in the wall, so any potential overtopping will not be exacerbated in any way and the Beach House will remain protected.’
