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| Sefton Coast Partnership | Shoreline Management | Nature and Wildlife | Coastal Heritage | Visiting the Coast | Students and Teachers | Coastlines | |
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Summer 1994A European Coast – Sefton Coast Wins Eurosite Quality AwardArticle by John Houston, Coastal Management OfficerThe Sefton Coast dunes are the single largest area of duneland in the UK. Although quite small compared to the vast areas of sand dune in the north west of Europe our dunes are certainly of international significance. The Sefton Coast Management Scheme has also achieved considerable recognition in Europe which culminated in 1993 with the award of a Eurosite Quality Label, which simply means that the management of the Sefton Coast, by all its partners, is amongst the best practice in Europe. The Eurosite Quality Label was awarded by a European nature agency, Eurosite, as a result of an international competition. Only those deemed by the jury to meet the highest standards in nature management were given the awards. The Sefton Coast Management Scheme won the award specifically for its work in habitat management and the award recognises the work of especially, Sefton Council, English Nature and The National Trust. Only four entries out of twenty in this category were given an award and only one other UK site received an award in the three other categories. This acknowledged expertise in coastal management is being put to good use in Sefton’s twinning with the city of Gdansk, Poland. Coastal staff from Sefton will be visiting the coastal areas near the city of Gdansk over the next few years to provide technical know-how skills in the establishment of a project broadly based on the same principles as the Sefton Coastal Management Scheme. The Polish coast has, surprisingly, many similarities to the Sefton Coast with miles of marram-clad sandhills, pine forests and red squirrels, dune slacks with Natterjack Toads and, as in Sefton , a large local population who value the coast for recreation. The Coast Management Officer visited Poland in September 1993 on a British Council travel grant and, in April this year Sefton’s Senior Coast and Countryside Ranger joined the RSPB in an international workshop held in Gdansk through BirdLife International. Managers on the Sefton Coast have most in common with Dutch colleagues, down to the same sense of humour and the love of the job. Informal contacts with Dutch dune mangers go back many years ;one Dutch manager even spent a year at Ainsdale as a student! Exchanges through study tours and workshops happen almost every year . The most recent excursion was a visit to Holland in March to look specifically at techniques for habitat management such as mowing and grazing. The visit was supported by English Nature and the Amsterdam Dune Water Company and involved the site managers of both the Ainsdale National and Local Nature Reserves. Hospitality on the Sefton side is good also. In recent years the coast has played host to specialist visitors from India, China, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Holland, Northern Ireland, Denmark, France, Germany, South Africa and Australia. Whilst we may not yet have broken into the international mass-tourism market we have certainly been able to attract a lot of specialist interest. The Eurosite award is just further evidence that the Sefton Coast truly is a European Coast. It is expected that this will also be acknowledged through the system of designating Special Areas of Conservation (SAC’s) under the EU Habitats Directive.
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