As sand levels keep rising it is human intervention – sea walls and sand management / removal – that is the only thing preventing dune formation. By Red Rocks you will see that the dunes have extended seaward over recent years, apparently one of the few places in Britain where this is so. Take a walk and you will see that the sand builds up rapidly on top of a salt marsh strip and is colonised by dune vegetation which traps yet more sand to build new embryo or fore dunes.

Hoylake promenade would very quickly disappear under dunes if the windblown sand was not removed.

I was a veteran of the Spartina digs in the ’70s organised by the Hoylake sailing club. I now realise Spartina can’t be beaten since it is a symptom not a cause of the siltation process! As you can see between Red Rocks and West Kirby if you let it grow it rapidly gives way to sand dunes. So let’s not fight it but see it as a first step in the process of dune formation and a return to a more natural Hoylake beach.