Artificial Reef Closes Out

The Bournemouth Borough Council was reported to have put up signs on the beach advising people not to use Boscombe Reef after a six-monthly inspection found gaps between the sandbags that created potentially hazardous undertows. This has not deterred the council from saying that the closure was precautionary.

In an interview with the Bournemouth Echo, Tony Williams, council executive director, said: “It doesn’t mean that the reef is necessarily unsafe, just that we need to find out more about its condition. Once that has been established we can initiate any necessary maintenance repairs and proceed with the planned refinement works.”

However, a vociferous critic of the council's stance over the reef, Councillor Basil Ratcliffe accused the council of downplaying its faults, which have been documented over the past year. “The council is trying to pretend there’s nothing wrong with it,” he said. Ratcliffe said that "in February 2010 that a council officer had identified “all sorts of faults” including holes that you could get a foot stuck in."

The reef, comprising 55 giant submerged sand-filled bags about 250 metres offshore that cost £3.2million to make and put in place, has been dogged by controversy since it opened in 2009.

Besides, according to locals, the sandbag reef produces a mediocre wave. A year ago, a journalist on the Bournemouth Echo told Wavescape: "The general opinion from the 30 or so surfers I've spoken to, is that the reef produces a good wave for body boarders in very good conditions, but not much at other times, and never anything of interest to surfers."

Local surfer Chris Skone-Roberts, 41, told the Daily Mail that he and colleague had snorkelled on the reef and found gaps of up to two feet wide between the sand-bags. According to the Daily Mail, the reef has been "declared a no-go zone after a routine inspection found 'substantial changes' to the reef's shape has started to produce dangerous under-currents".

"It is thought the concern is that surfers could risk drowning by being sucked down into gaps that have appeared in the structure as a result of the changes."

Sources
Wikipedia
Daily Mail
Bournemouth Echo
Daily Telegraph