A bid by Hoylake councillors to push Wirral Council towards raking the beach has been defeated in a marathon meeting last night.

Andrew Gardner, Conservative councillor for Hoylake and Meols, called-in Cllr Liz Grey’s decision as the cabinet member for the environment to pause raking on the beach while studies were carried out to determine how the beach might develop.

His Tory colleague and fellow Hoylake and Meols councillor Tony Cox asked Wirral Council’s environment committee to back his plan to ask local residents what they would like to be done on the beach and to back raking if that is what they want.

But after almost four-and-a-half hours of debate the committee rejected his call by eight votes to six.

The council will now consult on a new beach management plan which will set out its plans for the future of the Hoylake beach.

The beach has not been raked, or sprayed with glyphosate, to manage the growth of vegetation since August last year when Cllr Grey decided to pause all beach management work while scientific studies were carried out.

This was in reaction to the local and national outcry over the beach’s spraying last August.

Cllr Gardner opened the meeting by stating he had learnt an awful lot about the beach in the last three years of debate on the issue, but stuck to the core points he has argued as the subject has become more contentious in recent months.

He said the town depends on a ‘golden sands’ amenity beach for its amenity as there is nowhere else, such as the large parks in other parts of the borough, which could replace the leisure and exercise space the beach provides within Hoylake.

On numerous occasions, both Cllr Gardner and Cllr Cox argued the cabinet member Labour councillor Liz Grey had failed to reach out and talk to local people and elected representatives to ask them their views on the beach.

Cllr Cox criticised her decision as “unilateral” and for failing to carry the support of local people.

Both sides of the debate called on witnesses to support their points of view, with Cllr Gardner calling a number of local residents to show the impact he felt leaving the beach to evolve naturally would have on business and the local community in general.

Nicola Verkade runs a hotel in Hoylake and said her business was already being hit by the growth of grass on the beach.

She said some of her customers had expressed dismay at the way the beach was evolving and wanted golden sands restored.

Charlie Warren, a long-term resident in the area, quoted the poll done by local councillors, including Cllr Gardner, in Hoylake in 2018 which concluded that around 90% of locals wanted a sandy beach.

Although this poll was criticised by Labour councillor Brian Kenny for oversimplifying the issue, as it stated a binary question along the lines of ‘do you want a grassy beach or a sandy beach’?

Defending her decision to pause raking and spraying on the beach, Labour councillor Liz Grey said scientific studies could not be undertaken if you were raking away the evidence they were going to study, such as which species are contained within the vegetation and crucially is the beach turning into salt marshes like Parkgate or sand dunes more akin to Birkdale?

On talking to local people, Cllr Grey said the consultation as part of the new beach management plan was partly about talking to local people and getting their views, as well as those of ecological and environmental experts.

She pointed out that this consultation has been delayed by this call-in meeting, as it meant the committee did not resolve to approve her plan to pause raking and spraying while a new beach management plan was devised earlier on in the year.

Cllr Grey called on environmental experts and local residents to support her side of the argument.

Two experts, Alan Jemmett and David Parker, supported her decision as it allowed time for scientific evidence on the development of the beach to be gathered.

Mr Parker added that coastal management plans are changing and increasingly authorities are looking at how beaches will evolve decades into the future, partially driven by climate change.

He also urged the council to work with nature and gather further data on how the beach might progress over a 50-100 year period.

Hoylake resident Judy Ugonna said the council should be looking to work with nature rather than against it and pointed out that vegetation can help form a natural barrier to flooding, which she felt was a key issue given some projections suggest Hoylake could face regular flooding or worse in as little as 50 year’s time.

She concluded that working with nature could help to protect people’s hopes.

Ultimately, Cllr Grey’s decision stood and the next battle on this issue will be in forming the new beach management plan.