Fears for Lake District estuary becoming marine dumping ground

People living in the Lake District's only coastal village say they fear it is becoming a dumping ground for broken boats.

Muncaster Parish Council says the estuary at Ravenglass is littered with shipwrecks, and they can't afford to get them removed.

Kathleen Tebb, says some of the wrecks were there when she moved to the village ten years ago. She said: “Down the far end of the street we’ve got boats including one that someone set fire to, two and a half weeks ago.

"It was fibreglass and foam so the stench of the foam burning and of course the carcinogenic compounds that came from it drifted over the village.

"There’s fibreglass fibres flying hither and thither and no one’s doing anything about it.”

The Parish Council say they only get £5,000 a year from the central pot of council taxes, and that is to cover the whole village’s upkeep.

One costing estimate they were given said it would be £10,000 to remove just one of the boats. They say they have contacted multiple organisations and government agencies for help.

Among them, the County Council, Environment Agency, their MP, the Department for the Environment - but with all of them they have hit a dead end.

The estuary also makes up part of an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), a designation which recognises the importance of conserving an area’s environment.

The Chairman of the Parish Council also says the boats pose a health hazard. Richard Johnson said: “It’s creating a danger within the village, basically children playing on the boats.

"They are also causing pollution. And this is one of probably Copeland’s most famous tourist resorts.”