SOUTH Lakeland District Council is to give up its lease on several miles of Morecambe Bay shoreline because costs of regulating it have spiralled out of control with the recent influx of cocklers in the last year.
SLDC has leased a stretch of Crown Estate-owned foreshore from Conishead, near Ulverston, to Roosebeck, on the outskirts of Barrow, for many years. The current 20-year lease is due to lapse in April next year.
Costs for the upkeep of the coastline have reached £26,000 a year since the cockle beds on the Bay matured, attracting armies of fisherman. Before the cocklers arrived in force, SLDC expected to spend only £750 a year on rent and litter picking.
Mike Jones, acting chief executive of SLDC, told a cabinet meeting there were no benefits for the council in keeping the lease. "If anything it is a liability in my view," he said.
SLDC cabinet members agreed not to renew the lease.
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