Sand to be ferried across Forth to restock beach

Concerns about the state of Dunbar’s East Beach were first raised last year, when community councillors noted that a lot of sand had disappeared from the award-winning strand.

To make matters worse, a large sewage pipe had become exposed.

Since then, discussions have taken place in a bid to find a way forward.

Now the Dunbar Shore and Harbour Neighbourhood Group has come up with a “two-pronged strategy” that could be implemented to improve the state of the beach.

One of the ideas would be to see sand brought across from Crail and St Monans.

Shore and harbour group chairwoman Pippa Swan said: “I was at a meeting and there did seem to be an opportunity to create some sort of circular idea. Some little ports are silting up with sand and the idea would be to remove it and bring it here.”

The other idea would be to create a stone groyne to replace the existing timber version.

A spokeswoman for the local authority responsible for Dunbar, East Lothian Council, said: “The council is continuing to look at options to obtain sand from elsewhere to restore Dunbar East Beach.

“Separately, early discussions are under way to replace a groyne, which helps to retain existing sands.”