Banned From The Beach - North East Lincolnshire Council Bans Detectorists

Metal detecting and barbecues are just two activities amongst a raft of restrictions that North East Lincolnshire county council is set to impose on the public from April 1st 2023.

Detectorists won’t be completely banned. They can detect the beaches but only with written permission from the council. A total ban was taken off the table during a public consultation when it was opposed by 59% to 41%. Anyone caught detecting without permission will be issued a £100 fine by enforcement officers.

Is this really a good use of taxpayers’ money? Conservative councillor Ron Shepherd who seems to be the driving force behind all this seems to think so. He said if the PSPOs proved successful more could be introduced. We would suggest, Mr Shepherd and his colleagues at North Lincs county council could perhaps be spending their time tackling the real issues facing the residents of the area. Metal detectorists on the county’s beaches are not one of them.

We do not know why detectorists are suddenly seen as the scourge of Cleethorpes beach but what we do know and what Mr Sheperd seems to have omitted from the consultation process is that detectorists are a positive thing for any beach. They remove rubbish, completely free of charge. They take away dangerous objects that could cause injury and they recover lost items that are very often returned to their very grateful owners.

There simply are no downsides to having detectorists on the beach.

It is worth perhaps watching the following video by our friend Addictedtobleeps. He sums it up far better than we ever could.