Wexford beach remains closed to public as plans to re-open being held up by ‘bureaucracy'
'When I was younger the beach here was massive, and there'd be people all summer long, as soon as the schools closed it'd be full,' says local councillor Craig Doyle. 'But over the years the erosion has kicked in; that's no-one's fault, it's just nature taking it's course.'
Still in his twenties, Cllr Doyle is not talking about a bygone era; it is only in the recent past that the beach in Courtown has succumbed to the elements.
In an effort to preserve what remained, Wexford County Council has installed rock armour and, earlier this year, announced the Courtown Beach Nourishment and Marina Development Project – which is set to start in 2027. Yet, miraculously, nature has begun to fight back, part of the beach has reappeared by itself. The only issue is no one can access it.
But that isn't quite true. Because although the walkway has been boarded up and there are signs informing the public that this small section of beach near the Courtown Woods is not accessible, most locals simply climb over the wooden barriers and pick their way through the rock armour to get to it.
'It's neither here nor there at the moment,' says Sinn Féin TD Fionntán Ó Suilleabháin. 'There's no point in having this fencing here, this walkway, semi-derelict, when you have a lovely beach there. We've been complaining in Courtown for years that we don't have a beach, but there's a beautiful beach there today.
'The council need to either properly close it off or take out this fencing altogether, people walk down to it anyway. You can't seal off the coast.'
This half-completed job is, according to Deputy Ó Suilleabháin, emblematic of the inability of local authorities to get simple jobs done.
'The mantra is always 'we don't have the money, it has to go out consultation', then it has to go through a load of red tape. Something like this shouldn't cost a whole lot of money. I appreciate the bind the council is in, in terms of funding and litigation, and all the other nonsense in terms of bureaucracy. But you can't seal off everything. Try and get the funding to finish it or remove it.'
Both politicians are hopeful that one day Courtown will be great again, that it can return to its former glories and become the tourist attraction it once was. And while the Beach Nourishment and Marina Development Project promises better days ahead, Deputy Ó Suilleabháin says the delivery of these schemes needs to be reassessed.
'We were talking about that in the council for donkey's years, and it's still looking for funding for it. We should be looking at funding from Europe for that, the local authority model of funding is a joke. In fairness to the council it has become very focused on rejuvenating Courtown, after years of neglect. It's trying to create hotel beds, it did the pier works which are beautiful. It has plans to make Courtown great again, because it was a great place.'
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
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