How do you make a sand dune in Swansea Bay?

The initiative by the council's nature conservation team will help tackle the amount of sand getting on the seashore's famous prom and nearby Mumbles Road. It'll also help reduce the number of times highways teams have to remove tons of sand from the road and footpaths and help with flood defence.

Andrew Stevens, Cabinet Member for Environment and Infrastructure said: "We can't stop nature having its way and blowing sand off the beach and on to the prom and roads and we'll still have to keep clearing the way from time to time.

"But thanks to some ingenious nature and environment-friendly ideas from our conservation team, new sand dunes are taking shape on the shoreline opposite the recreation ground to help tackle the problem."

The first step happened in February when the team laid out tree trunks on the beach which had been blown over by the winter storms elsewhere in Swansea. The second step was to add areas of natural chestnut fencing nearby to slow down the wind carrying the sand.

The third step of this nature based solution sees wind-blown sand captured by these obstacles and settle to form the dunes. 

Cllr Stevens said: "The price we pay for having some of the best beaches in Wales right on our doorstep is sand getting on to our roads and pavements.

"While we can't always win the battle, we can work with nature to make the beach even more attractive to the hundreds of thousands of tourists we'll be welcoming to Swansea over the summer period.

"At the same time the ecology of the area is improved, encouraging plant and insect-life to flourish year-round and visitors encouraged not to spoil it all by leaving litter behind."