Calls to block camper vans from accessing protected Anglesey beach

Dale Spridgeon, local democracy reporter

Calls are being made to block an unofficial route onto a protected Anglesey beach where cars and camper vans have been parking at the water’s edge.

Vehicles have been passing through a gap at the end of the Lleiniog beach picnic site car park near Penmon to access a pebbled beach and raised grassy area.

Now, the local community council, is urging Anglesey County Council to block up the route over fears that the vehicles could cause erosion at the site notorious for the problem and for public safety.

Lleiniog beach and its surrounding area is part of a 6km coastal stretch designated an area of Special Scientific Interest.

It also includes a popular section of the Anglesey Coastal Path.

Erosion

Llangoed and Penmon Community Council clerk Alun Foulkes said: “We don’t really want people parking down there, not only for their own safety, driving a vehicle so close to the water’s edge, but mainly to prevent further erosion of the site, it’s long been a problem there, and it is also protected area.

“We don’t want to stop people enjoying the area, but we just ask people not park there, but leave their vehicles in the car park.”

It is thought that recent work in the area may have contributed to the public’s perception of access to the site.

“There was a lot of work in that area following a recent planning application to carry out tidal defence at a nearby house,” Mr Foulkes added.

“I think the council need to block up the end of the car park so vehicles can’t get through.”

Lleiniog beach hit world-wide notoriety in 2018, when protesters highlighted that thousands of years of “globally-important” history and geology had been bulldozed by council contractors.

A 200-yard stretch of beach was torn up leaving the once boulder-strewn beach bare and with what were described as “glacially significant” rocks piled at the top end of the beach.

The site has long attracted scientists, marine biologists and geologists to study its unique glacial, archaeological and marine features.

Historians and archaeologists, also study features of the Lleioniog beach area, including medieval features relating to the nearby Aberlleiniog castle.