Friday, May 13, 2005
Shooting at Whitburn
Shooting at Whitburn Shock
I bring this matter to your attention purely as someone concerned for the safety of beach users at Whitburn. I, like many others, often enjoy exploring the rock pools behind the shooting range at Whitburn and teaching my children about the variety of marine life that can be seen at low tide. I also love to photograph this rugged piece of coastland, that's the reason why we visited today to gather material for my photoblog.
However, as I was lining up some pictures Junior Curly called out
"Dad, what are these?"
To my worry they turned out to be spent shotgun cartridges, Eley 28 gram to be exact. Junior continued to explore the beach, but now knowing what he had found, he went looking for more, and boy did he find more. Spent catridges lying all over the gritty sand in an area of about 200 suare metres, he collected over a hundred and put them in a pile, but it would have taken us hours to clean up the whole area.
Click picture to enlarge
This begs all sorts of questions - who is discharging a shotgun on the beach at Whitburn?
Is the weapon licensed and registered?
What were they shooting at?
Was this activity legal?
Why did they leave their spent munitions all over the beach?
Is it safe for other beach users when this type of activity is taking place?
Yes, I know it's just behind the army's firing range (the police went down the same road), but our soldiers are not issued with shotguns, which are a short range weapon and no good at all on the modern battlefield. Any firing from the range would not result in spent munitions falling onto the beach.
Click picture to enlarge
Spent shotgun cartridges fall at the site where the weapon is discharged from, therefore someone has been doing a lot of shooting at Whitburn beach. These cartridges are in relatively good condition, indicating that they have been on the beach for no more than two or three weeks. Surely someone heard the reports from the weapon? Not necessarily so, the beach is well hidden at the foot of the cliffs and more than 200 yards from the nearest properties, it would depend on the wind direction.
Click to enlarge map
The Police response
Junior Curly and I decided that we ought to inform the police about our find, so he put a handfull in his pocket and we drove down to South Tyneside's Area Command in Station Road, South Shields, arriving at the station at about 16.30
We spoke to a civilian operative who took us into a private office to take down all of the details and she had a look at the cartridges (looked like it was the first time she'd seen such articles), she asked us to take a seat in the waiting area whilst she got an officer to come and talk to us.
There we sat amongst the assorted bling bling charvas and bail surrenderers for over 25 minutes until I got up to tell her that I had two trout to fillet and cook. Very apologetically she explained that there was not a police officer free to see us right now.
Come on! Area Command, 15 squad cars in the car park, and nobody available to investigate a possible firearms offence? It beggered belief.
I eventually received a telephone call at 18.00 from a Sergeant Bagshaw promising that he would try and get someone to see me by 21.00 this evening ("it is a Friday night sir and the lads get very busy") failing that I could expect a visit tomorrow morning, and "please don't throw the cartridges away!"
In the meantime, someone is wandering around with a lethal shotgun discharging it on a public beach!
I have also appraised the three ward councillors in Whitburn of the situation.
_________________________________________________________________
I bring this matter to your attention purely as someone concerned for the safety of beach users at Whitburn. I, like many others, often enjoy exploring the rock pools behind the shooting range at Whitburn and teaching my children about the variety of marine life that can be seen at low tide. I also love to photograph this rugged piece of coastland, that's the reason why we visited today to gather material for my photoblog.
However, as I was lining up some pictures Junior Curly called out
"Dad, what are these?"
To my worry they turned out to be spent shotgun cartridges, Eley 28 gram to be exact. Junior continued to explore the beach, but now knowing what he had found, he went looking for more, and boy did he find more. Spent catridges lying all over the gritty sand in an area of about 200 suare metres, he collected over a hundred and put them in a pile, but it would have taken us hours to clean up the whole area.
Click picture to enlarge
This begs all sorts of questions - who is discharging a shotgun on the beach at Whitburn?
Is the weapon licensed and registered?
What were they shooting at?
Was this activity legal?
Why did they leave their spent munitions all over the beach?
Is it safe for other beach users when this type of activity is taking place?
Yes, I know it's just behind the army's firing range (the police went down the same road), but our soldiers are not issued with shotguns, which are a short range weapon and no good at all on the modern battlefield. Any firing from the range would not result in spent munitions falling onto the beach.
Click picture to enlarge
Spent shotgun cartridges fall at the site where the weapon is discharged from, therefore someone has been doing a lot of shooting at Whitburn beach. These cartridges are in relatively good condition, indicating that they have been on the beach for no more than two or three weeks. Surely someone heard the reports from the weapon? Not necessarily so, the beach is well hidden at the foot of the cliffs and more than 200 yards from the nearest properties, it would depend on the wind direction.
Click to enlarge map
The Police response
Junior Curly and I decided that we ought to inform the police about our find, so he put a handfull in his pocket and we drove down to South Tyneside's Area Command in Station Road, South Shields, arriving at the station at about 16.30
We spoke to a civilian operative who took us into a private office to take down all of the details and she had a look at the cartridges (looked like it was the first time she'd seen such articles), she asked us to take a seat in the waiting area whilst she got an officer to come and talk to us.
There we sat amongst the assorted bling bling charvas and bail surrenderers for over 25 minutes until I got up to tell her that I had two trout to fillet and cook. Very apologetically she explained that there was not a police officer free to see us right now.
Come on! Area Command, 15 squad cars in the car park, and nobody available to investigate a possible firearms offence? It beggered belief.
I eventually received a telephone call at 18.00 from a Sergeant Bagshaw promising that he would try and get someone to see me by 21.00 this evening ("it is a Friday night sir and the lads get very busy") failing that I could expect a visit tomorrow morning, and "please don't throw the cartridges away!"
In the meantime, someone is wandering around with a lethal shotgun discharging it on a public beach!
I have also appraised the three ward councillors in Whitburn of the situation.
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