The third meeting of the forum was held last night ( thursday) and it was a case of were still getting the members together and wanting to move on with the real business.
It was good to welcome Cllr Dewi Miles, Debbie Wareham from Ships Timbers and Tony Locket the Sailing club president…… all selected by their respective groups to attend the forum.
It was also great to welcome our new Chair, Roy Haley from Llandudno Museum. Roy is an experienced chair and without doubt will run the forum well and fairly and keep us all under control! Big thanks to him for offering to take up the post as an independent chairperson.
It was the first week that meeting was able to spring to life. We started off with Geraint giving a brief history of where we are today, how the present sea defences came about and the differences between Llandudno and Colwyn Bay.
Nobody was in any doubt about the work ahead and how big a challenge we have to get the outcome the town deserves. I think everyone was in awe of the information that we had to absorb, Were not engineers, we are unqualified people that want a better solution. We need to look at all the alternatives and leave no stone unturned.
A lot of questions were asked of ERF, a lot of data and information were requested and I have no doubt it will be forthcoming. We want to know about the effect the Gwynt y Mor wind farm on constable bank has had on our coastline, if any. Has dredging caused bigger waves to form and effect our beaches?
We need to talk about what we all want. As was mentioned, a solution would be to put sand on the beach and a six foot wall in front of the hotels but we all know this won’t work and these are the things we have to rule in and out. Some want groynes, some want just access to the sand at lower levels but without a doubt it is clear that we all want the same thing, a beach that is fit for purpose along with a sensible flood defence.
It’s an opportunity for us to change the beaches of Llandudno for the better. To bring back the beaches the town as a holiday resort desperately needs.
We need to look at every idea, not rule anything out, come up with a few sensible even radical ideas if needed but we can’t miss the opportunity.
For the next few meetings we will look at specific themes such as environmental impact, flood defence and amenity. We will discuss ideas surrounding each theme. We will all have our own ideas and i’m sure there will be healthy debate. Each group will be coming at it from their point of view and this is good.