Work begins to clear sand from Exmouth seafront

The road will be closed in sections as the work is carried out.

Work has begun to clear the sand from Queens Drive. Picture: Daniel Clark. - Credit: Daniel Clark

Road closures are in place in Exmouth as work to clear the sand from the seafront has begun.

Queen’s Drive was left covered in sand on Friday, with the usual grey concrete of the roads, footpaths and parking bays having been turned gold.

East Devon District Council and Devon County Council will be working together to clear the road of the sand, and a county council spokesman on Monday morning confirmed that work had begun.

The sand has been blown across from the beach as the iconic and naturally occurring sand dunes, which used to be a feature of the two and a half miles of golden sands along its seafront, were killed off in the storms of February 2014.

Back in 2004 the sand dunes were first damaged when storm-force winds in late October severely damaged the town and saw half of the naturally-occurring dunes washed away. A second storm in February 2014 killed off and washed away the remaining dunes.