Bournemouth's clifftop goats 'not up to job' of clearing vegetation say residents

Watch Richard Slee's report on Bournemouth's clifftop grazing goats. He spoke to Deputy Mayor David Kelsey and senior ranger from BCP Council Tom Bennett.

The council in Bournemouth is defending its use of goats to manage cliff top vegetation, despite some local residents complaining that overgrown bushes are blocking their sea views.

The goats were introduced as part of the council's response to the 2019 declaration over the climate crisis.

It was hoped they would munch their way through thick vegetation preventing the need for environmentally-unfriendly pesticides.

But some people now feel that this 'natural' way of controlling the bushes, and therefore the stability of the cliffs, has failed - and that the fifty goats are not up to the job.

There are now many places where the view has disappeared, which is why the borough's Deputy Mayor David Kelsey has resorted to cutting back the brambles himself.

"Bournemouth is a seaside resort and you walk along the cliff top here and you can't see the sea,"he says. 

"Everything is so overgrown now that we have beaches and benches, benches that people want to sit on and take in the view and at this moment they are not able to do that."

The council says that current guidelines do limit what they can do at this time of year.

"We are in the bird nesting season," says senior ranger Tom Bennett. "This site is managed through a countryside stewardship agreement with Natural England which sets out what's required and lots of this scrub and vegetation is really important for our ecological emergency."

But David Kelsey says it should be possible to strike a balance:

"Biodiversity does not mean you have to have an overgrown jungle of your clifftop.

"It can be neat and tidy. 

"We all prune our gardens and we care about biodiversity for that and we should be doing the same on the clifftops."

And the message from BCP? "Be patient we will get there and cut those views around the benches and the seats. 

"The goats are doing a really good job and over the winter we will catch up on lots of our works to clear areas of scrub that require clearing."