Dangerous Boats

BeachPeople's Badboats campaign is focused on the ecological damage that derelict glass fibre boats do to the environment, and how to resolve that.

The obvious area where we would like to recover the sunken and beached boats around Poole Harbour to has been occupied by a collection of derelict ex-fishing boats for a considerable time that in some cases represent clear risk to life.

This is a good example (below) - the heavy fishing vessel is supported on a slope that falls away to the the cycle path and footpath and supported by a flimsy wedge seemingly held together by a single woodscrew.

If the wedge gives way then then boat will kill anyone it falls on.

The derelict boats need removing certainly, but for the area to not be fenced off and the boats left with such lack of care applied to the safety of the public is a shocking oversight.

BeachPeople reported this to Dorset police via 101 and then 999 at 17:52pm (incident #528) but it should not be up to us to monitor these things as they are so obviously dangerous.

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for originals of these photos

14th Feb 2023 17:24

Water Quality Display on Kite Beach

BeachPeople are campaigning to have an A1-sized lectern installed at Kite Beach to inform beachgoers (who often number over 450 in the summer) about the recent water quality with particular focus on raw sewage discharge.

We test the water regularly in the summer for E. Coli and Enterococci and display the results on our website (RHS widget) but feel that it would be more helpful to make that data and others readily available to the public

The board would display:

• Recent BeachPeople water quality results
• Details of the most recent nearby raw sewage discharges by Wessex Water
• Information gleaned from the nascent WW AI system
• BeachPeople campaign updates, eg:
  • Our campaign to have Whitley Lake, Kite Beach designated as a bathing water
  • Our Badboats campaign to have the polluting derelict glass fibre boats removed from the Harbour and disposed of.

Funding may come from our recent CIL application but if not then it will be sourced from BeachPeople club fund and from donor support.

Drinking Water Fountain on Kite Beach

BeachPeople's 4th campaign is to have a free drinking water fountain installed at Kite Beach to help reduce the amount of single use plastic water bottles that pile up around the bins each hot day during the summer.

Campaigns

BeachPeople first started out in 2016 as an ocean sports club for adults, plain and simple. Then Covid hit and group activities went out of the window. Rather than sit around waiting for lockdown to end we hunted around to find a way to make a positive difference to our local seas and beaches.

As a result we have three campaigns:

Designating Whitley Lake as a Bathing Water by Defra

This in a small way attempts to reduce the amount of sewage discharged into Poole Harbour by designating Whitley Lake, Kite Beach, Sandbanks as a bathing water so that it is sampled 20 times per bathing season by the EA

Water Quality Display on Kite Beach

This is intended to display bathing water quality, results of the EA tests and BeachPeople's own tests etc.

Derelict Boats In Poole Harbour

This we call Badboats - it aims to have all the derelict glass fibre boats removed from Poole and Christchurch harbours to prevent the non bio-degradeable strands of fibre becoming a permanent and damaging part of the ecosystem. IT is a joint collaboration between BCP Council, Poole Harbour Commission and BeachPeople.

Drinking Water Fountain on Kite Beach

BeachPeople is working with Wessex Water and Cllr Mark Anderson of BCP Council to have a water fountain installed at Kite Beach, Sandbanks in order to cut down on single use plastics which pile up around the bins on busy days

If you feel the campaigns are worthy of your support then you can make a donation of any amount here.

If you only wish to contribute to one specific campaign please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..