Sand dunes between St Annes and Blackpool to be featured on TV's Countryfile - here's when you can watch

The latest edition of Countryfile on BBC1 will see presenter Tom Heap speaking to Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s dunes project officer Amy Pennington and volunteers as they plant marram grass on the dunes at St Annes.

The piece will be part of a wider section of the popular long-running environment show focusing on how the North West region is dealing with coastal erosion.

The Wildlife Trust, Blackpool Council and Fylde Council have been involved in works to implement the Sand Dune Management Plan over the last nine years.

The partnership recently received £999,000 from the Environment Agency to continue the work for a further five years.

Its work has included annual planting of discarded Christmas trees on the beach at St Annes to protect the runes and help keep wind-blown sand at bay.

Over the last 150 years, much of the sand dunes has been lost and today 80 hectares remains, but more than 100 metres has been created by the partnership work.

The dunes, running north from St Annes to its boundary with Blackpool, protect homes in the area as well as a local nature reserve and are home to several internationally significant plants, rare invertebrates, and priority species birds.

Sand lizards, the UK’s rarest lizard, have been successfully reintroduced since 2018 now habitat conditions are deemed favourable.

Coun Jane Hugo, Blackpool’s cabinet member for climate change, met Tom Heap and volunteers on the dunes.

She said: “We have a strong track record of delivering coastal protection schemes and it is great to see that work continuing along the Fylde Coast.”

Lancashire Wildlife Trust Conservation Officer Kim Wisdom said: "Over the past nine years there has been significant improvement to the structure of the dunes, which protect wildlife and the homes of people living nearby.

"Only last year, we saw the completion of a joint project to return sand lizards to the dunes.”

Countryfile is on BBC One on Sunday, April 10 at 5.50pm.

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