To take pebbles from the beach?

[DarylDixonsHair]

Is it allowed? I'd like to put some borders around my flowers beds so need about 20 - 30 medium sized ones. I wouldn't take them all in one go, probably a handful at a time while dog walking.

Just wanted to check I'm not breaking the law/endangering the planet/taking the piss.

Wickes sell a 17kg bag for £3

Where do you think garden centres and the shops mentioned get them from?

Riverbeds and similar places. They don't just walk down to the beach and steal some every time their stocks are low

Where the large shops get their pebbles is a good question. ..

You should sell seashells instead

Seriously a kid picking stones could easily pick up 20- 30 so you’re fine, it’s not like you’re turning up with a digger

Just get some from a garden centre and don’t be so tight

It's taking the piss and in some areas it can increase coastal erosion. It's illegal under coastal protection laws.

Seriously a kid picking stones could easily pick up 20- 30 so you’re fine, it’s not like you’re turning up with a digger

It doesn’t matter how many you pick up, or if you are a kid or not. It’s against the law.
In reality, no one is likely to object to anyone picking up a couple, but 20 or 30 might get you into trouble..

One person picking up 30... spread over a thousand people on a popular beach every day over several months = several million stones.

It's allowed.

@Lynda07
It isn’t. Have you not read the thread?

No, it isn't @Lynda07

As a child I used to always take a pebble/Shell from the beach on holiday, just one as a souvenir, does that make me a prolific beach lifter?

@lynda07 What makes you think it's allowed when it's outlawed by the coastal erosion act of 1949?

Why are people proud to be so deliberately obtuse?

What's to be gained by pretending you can't understand the difference between a child picking up one or two small pebbles weighing 100g on impulse and an adult deliberately setting out to take 30 medium sized pebbles weighiing 20kg to edge her flower boarders with?

I think the problem is that there are some coastal places with particularly attractive stones and pebbles, and sometimes people do try to take larger quantities. I once saw this somewhere in the UK where most of the stones on the beach are the most beautiful quartz.

No-one minds the odd handful of interesting pebbles and shells, but larger amounts of biggies - no.

@greengauges. What an utterly ridiculous statement. There will never be a thousand people on any one day collecting 30 stones each...never mind doing it day after day over several months.

I literally cannot breath for laughing 🤣

@Jenasaurus. Yes. You're a terrible terrible person 😂

I’m genuinely astonished anyone thinks it’s ok when beaches are pleading with people not to! It’s called social responsibility - not doing exactly what you want because it negatively affects others.

www.visitcleveleys.co.uk/environment/beach-care/please-dont-take-pebbles-from-the-beach/

Might not be people doing a maximum of thirty a day for months - but I'm willing to bet that within a week ,if that were permitted somebody would come and load up a van on the basis that they were getting their year's worth for them, their wife, their five kids and the dog in one go.

Linining my flower border, I'd buy a bag of pebbles.

Children collecting a few interesting pebbles that fit in their pockets is not a significant contribution towards coastal erosion.

Where the large shops get their pebbles is a good question

Yes. Given that collecting pebbles from beaches is illegal, either their suppliers are businesses making a mass production of making money from breaking the law in plain sight or they get them from somewhere else.

I think river beds, sea bed excavation and quarries.

Who knew. We always look for interesting ones when on the beach and if we find a really pretty one we would occasionally keep it. Slightly different from taking a bucket load but will stop doing it now (the keeping one, will still hunt for cool ones).

The act was passed in 1949, surely people don't think that in the aftermath of a World War, when the country was still on its knees and rationing was still in force, that parliament was so short of things to do it decided to waste time debating trivial matters. Coastal erosion impacts flood defences, wild life habitats and can, in extreme circumstances, be a threat to human life

But I suppose unless you trivialise the cumulative effect this kind of behaviour has then you won't be able to paint those who point out its against the law as uptight sticklers for rules.

It's theft ? Ridiculous. And taking seashells is theft?

I don't know if it happens in the UK, but some beaches (in the world) are constructed out of materials brought in by multiple lorries, at great expense.