Welcome to Haverigg Beach: a brief look at RSPB's community relations protocol
Brazen bird charity thinks it owns the place, so can make up its own rules, write them on signs and stick on SSSI land without permission or telling anyone.
Note: while visiting Haverigg Beach, it did not strike me as polluted. Also, Betty’s Beach Hut does a great coffee.
One morning in August, dogwalkers and beachgoers in Haverigg, Cumbria, noticed some signs sticking out of the ground and sand dunes around their beach.
The signs told people to keep dogs on leads and not enter certain areas. The RSPB says it put them up "to protect endangered birds".
But it didn’t tell anyone.
Confused locals vented on the Haverigg Beach Facebook group. The target of their anger was the local council in neighbouring Millom.
A council member told me it had nothing to do with the signs, which just appeared from nowhere, without anyone asking permission to put them up. She thought it was odd the RSPB didn’t put its logo on, as if it knew sticking up the signs was a bad idea.
The FB group "went mad on it", she said, with locals posting photos of vandalised signs. It wasn't until she responded to the posts, denying the council was involved, that RSPB got in touch with her and admitted it stuck them up.
A local newspaper tried to clear up the confusion.
‘Part of Haverigg Beach restricted to protect wildlife’, was the headline of the report, which quoted Millom Town Council: "These signs are only intended for deployment during the bird breeding season and will be taken down by September 6. They only cover a tiny section of beach that runs adjacent to a section that has the potential to be prime nesting territory for endangered ground-nesting birds and has played host to some this year."
The problem was, nesting season ended about a month or so earlier, something most locals knew. So what were they protecting?
The RSPB said ringed plover nests, even though there weren’t any. It might as well have warned about sharks. It reassured the councillor that no nests or birds were in danger or disturbed, adding that it was a trial to see how the public reacted.
"You've got your answer because they're pulling them out," the councilwoman told the charity, which will put the signs up again next year when there will be nests.
After that conversation, all remaining signs were taken down. There is an RSPB reserve not far from the beach, but there are no staff, so they will have had to come from the nearest office an hour or so away, just to put up then take down the signs.
With a couple of United Utilities plants nearby, it may not surprise people to learn the beach has had some bad sewage spills - see this article from March 2024.
And with the cosiness the water company shares with RSPB in the Lakes, conspiracy theorists might suggest the signs were put up ready for the August bank holiday weekend to keep people away from a stinky spot, besides wildlife that wasn’t there.
As well as supposedly being the country's most polluted beach, Haverigg is a SSSI. That means the RSPB will probably have needed special permission from Natural England to put up the signs. Did it bother? I doubt it.
