The impact of sand extraction at Formby Point ... - Sefton Council

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on the Sefton Coast occur here but there is a lower-lying area, surrounded by Marramdominated
dune ridges, which is probably a relict of earlier sand removal. One blow-out
in this area has eroded down to the water-table but not sufficiently, as yet, to form a
slack. There is a large area of prime Natterjack Toad habitat here but, unfortunately,
nowhere for the creature to breed. To the east of the highest ridge, is a dune valley which
probably originated from sand-winning. Clothed by Creeping Willow and Marram, it
contains a scrape dug in 1987. Due to sand-accumulation, this is now relatively dry,
containing only a little Marsh Pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris) to indicate the proximity
of the water-table.
Ravenmeols was surveyed in 1988/89 and 2003 for the Sefton Coast NVC. Gateley &
Michell (2004) report that fixed-dune communities became simplified with a greater
proportion being recorded as SD7. Meanwhile, the areas of damp-slack decreased and
the dry SD16 community, dominated by Creeping Willow, became more extensive.
Their findings support the observations made during the current study.
2.3.3. Cabin Hill
Cabin Hill contains two extensive sand-winning areas, the most obvious one at the end of
Range Lane, in the ownership of Sefton Council, covers about 4.5ha and is well
demarcated on three sides by cliffed dunes. The marks of heavy machinery are
particularly well shown on the 1961 aerial photograph. The other, larger, site is less well
defined both on aerial photographs and on the ground and covers part of the 28.4ha Cabin
Hill National Nature Reserve leased in 1985 by the Nature Conservancy Council (now
Natural England) and declared in 1991. The name of this area refers to the largest sanddune
and landmark on this part of the coast which was completely removed, in places
down to the water-table. This so weakened the coast protection function of the dune belt
that the then Mersey & Weaver River Authority constructed a flood defence barrier bank
about 750m long in 1970/71, at great public expense. To build the bank, sand was
excavated from a series of linear borrow-pits, creating wetlands which, from about 1976
to 1988 became the most important Natterjack Toad breeding site on the Sefton Coast,
250 spawn strings being counted in spring 1978 (Smith 1978c). In the late 1970s, the