In May Cornwall CC considered the planning control implications off the removal of sand from Hayle Harbour (see Mineral Planning 91 p.25). This activity has recently become the focus of considerable local concern. Beach levels are currently low and worries abound of a connection between these low levels and the sand removal carried out by contractors on behalf of the Harbour Company to maintain a navigable channel. The method of maintaining a navigable channel until the 1970s was by impounding high tide water in two pools, Carnsew and Copperhouse. At the right moment the sluice gates were lifted and the impounded water escaped and scoured out the channel. Since this arrangement ended both pools have been designated as SSSIs, and their recovery for scouring purposes is permanently out of reach. The subsequent use of a suction dredger enabled the sand cleared from the channel to be recovered for the first time and from then on the sand was trucked away. The demise of the dredger in the early 1990s coincided with the channel developing a dogleg; the intruding sandbanks were from then on removed using a swing shovel at low water. The removal of sand and its use in agriculture as a liming agent continued.
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