West Shore Issues

[Hugo]

How is West Shore looking after Mondays storm ?

I haven't been there recently but Storm Brian is on it's way this weekend and it sounds ominous with  continuous winds of over 50 mph predicted.
We'll have to see what it looks like after that and it's not the Winter Storm season yet       

[Hugo]

Everyone has their own ideas on the problems with the West Shore and the Conwy River.     One I heard about the Conwy River was that the cob should have been built with a series of arches, that bit is a fact, but people have said that it was done to curtail the transport of materials by water up the Conwy River.
Fact or fiction but it has certainly resulted in the silting up of the River Conwy downstream from the suspension bridge.

Llandudno was naturally sandy by the West Shore before Mostyn Estates "legally" stole the common land  and then sold off the land for house building.     In fact most of the holes on the North Wales Golf Course are on sandy land whereas on Maesdu Golf Club they are mainly clay or other soils.

You know more about the West Shore than I do Spotty Dog but was the sand already there before your house was built or did the sand come after that 1990's sea defence was built, that is the question.
I had a friend who lived down Trinity Avenue in the 1980's and she complained of the sand damaging her car, but the fault was with the North Wales Golf Club who did some work on the course and exposed the sand to the elements and the prevailing westerly wind did the rest

One fact that I know for certain and is irrefutable is that the 1990's sea defence is responsible for the present problems on the West Shore

[Hugo]

     Fact or fiction but it has certainly resulted in the silting up of the River Conwy downstream from the suspension bridge.

I meant to say upstream, as the river has silted up to Llanrwst as far as I am aware

[Bosun]

All semi-enclosed tidal waters (estuaries, harbours, marinas, etc) silt up naturally as a matter of course. On the tidal flood, seawater flows in, and there is a type of flocculation that deposits the suspended solids in the water as silt, and less silt than is deposited is removed when the water flows out with the ebb tide. So, estuaries and harbours have to be dredged to keep them operational. Marinas such as Conwy with no 'flushing' action have to be dredged on a virtually continual basis to maintain any depth. Newquay (mid-Wales) Harbour silted up rapidly and virtually killed off trade for the town. The other point to be noted is that any construction, gryones, harbour walls, anti-flood measures, etc will have an effect to a greater or lesser extent in the erosion or deposition of material in areas other than that of the construction.

[Hugo]

No one can argue with any thing that you've said Bosun as it is all true, what I will say though is that the present sand problem on the West Shore is man made, or to be more exact a CCBC  blunder.

I had a walk on the West Shore today and I was surprised that Storm Brian hadn't affected the area that much.    The sand was piled up against the sea wall on the promenade as it usually is at this time of year and the paint had been sand blasted off the lamp post but at least the kite surfers were enjoying themselves and making the most of the windy weather.

I had a walk on the cycle track later and noticed that there were no bikes on it and there were no bike tracks on the sand but I'm not surprised as the cycle path that was cleared in April of this year has now disappeared below the drifting sand

[Dave]

Interesting shots as I haven't been there for a while. The shot of the sand blasted pole really does highlight the potential damaging effect that a combination of wind and sand then there is salt to throw in to the equation too.

[Hugo]

Dave, the wind had died down when I was there but it was still quite blowy and there were a number of people there including children who were unaware of the dangers of the blowing sand.
When I went on the promenade I wore protective glasses and an anorak with the hood up as I was taking no chances of getting sand in my eyes or face.    It's a lovely place for a walk, but on a nice calm day

[mondie]

I ride the Llandudno-Deganwy path each day as its my commute to work Today was the first time in a week I had done so and could not believe how much sand has been dumped over the path, in many places it has completely disappeared under 4ft of sand. It is going to be a rather large excavation job to bring it back to pre-storm condition. I am only new to the area but if the dunes kept migrating inland at this rate and nothing was done, within a year a lot of land would be lost. Presumably, it hasn't always been like this so whatever mitigation works have been done over the years are not working and in fact are detrimental to the health of the sand dunes.

[DaveR]

I had a walk on the cycle track later and noticed that there were no bikes on it and there were no bike tracks on the sand but I'm not surprised as the cycle path that was cleared in April of this year has now disappeared below the drifting sand

It's been cleared once or twice since then, Hugo, latest was only about 2 weeks ago! We walked along it then and the tyre tracks of the Bobcat they use to clear the sand were visible.

[Hugo]

I ride the Llandudno-Deganwy path each day as its my commute to work Today was the first time in a week I had done so and could not believe how much sand has been dumped over the path, in many places it has completely disappeared under 4ft of sand. It is going to be a rather large excavation job to bring it back to pre-storm condition. I am only new to the area but if the dunes kept migrating inland at this rate and nothing was done, within a year a lot of land would be lost. Presumably, it hasn't always been like this so whatever mitigation works have been done over the years are not working and in fact are detrimental to the health of the sand dunes.

Welcome to the world of the CCBC Mondie.         

[Hugo]

I had a walk on the cycle track later and noticed that there were no bikes on it and there were no bike tracks on the sand but I'm not surprised as the cycle path that was cleared in April of this year has now disappeared below the drifting sand

It's been cleared once or twice since then, Hugo, latest was only about 2 weeks ago! We walked along it then and the tyre tracks of the Bobcat they use to clear the sand were visible.

I didn't realise that Dave, that's a nice regular little earner for someone.

[norman08]

Hugo we know how far down and how good them dunes Where before Ccbc started messing, the sand on them dunes is fine sand so making that path they have over the years lost the dunes ,if the wanted to make a path Why didn't they board it to stop the sand dropping .  Oh by the way Jennings have the contract to clear that path never seen it go out to tender ,wonder why 😡

[Hugo]

They should have left the dunes alone, it's ridiculous to have a cycle track there but again the loonies from CCBC haven't listened to the locals who advised against it.
There are stones and rocks on the path now after the storm so they'll need clearing too
Do you fancy putting a tender in Norman to supplement our pensions?    I'm sure that we can do it cheaper than Jennings can

[mondie]

In the four months I have ridden the track I would have seen Jennings there at least eight times. Usually, it's an early Monday morning job it seems. Great job security!

[Hugo]

Jennings,  a job for life