# Man forced to return pebbles to avoid £1,000 fine



## LondonDragon (24 Aug 2018)

Be warned when collecting stuff for your fish tanks!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...ebbles-cornwall-beach-threatened-prosecution/


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## Tim Harrison (24 Aug 2018)

The same often goes for woodlands and forests etc. Many of them have bylaws with hefty fines for removal of wood...
That lucky find of a fantastic free root may not be such good value if you get caught and fined a couple of hundred £s


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## BarryH (24 Aug 2018)

I fully understand the reasoning behind removing pebbles from beaches but later in the same report on TV it was mentioned they were also banning "rock stacking". Where people create small works of art by simply stacking rocks and pebbles on top of one another.

The reason given was that by moving the rocks and pebbles to make the stacks, you are disturbing the habitats of the creatures that live beneath them. Surely the incoming and outgoing tides do this twice a day? Rocks and pebbles banging against each other and rolling around is what gives them their shapes.


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## zozo (24 Aug 2018)

Yes, same in my country, taking wood from a forest is illegal, also goed for digging up plants.. I believe its under the poaching law which is considered a very serious offence.



BarryH said:


> you are disturbing the habitats of the creatures that live beneath them.



Yup and imagine you distroy a beetles nest that is on the red list of endangered sp. You have to be realy very carefull with this.. And don't loud mouth the ranger, if it's taken to court you smoke a very big cigar.. 

Beter to have someone on the lookout.. And then before you are spotted loading in, you have to start throwing all out again.. When the ranger askes "What do you think you are doing?".. You answer i had a few peebles left in te garden and thought they might fit in here perfectly!?.. Than he will say "Dumping is not allowed!!. Load all up again and go home before you get a fine!!.. Problem solved..


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## Tim Harrison (24 Aug 2018)

zozo said:


> Beter to have someone on the lookout.. And then before you are spotted loading in, you have to start throwing all out again.. When the ranger askes "What do you think you are doing?".. You answer i had a few peebles left in te garden and thought they might fit in here perfectly!?.. Than he will say "Dumping is not allowed!!. Load all up again and go home before you get a fine!!.. Problem solved..


Haha...that's a very good standard defence 



BarryH said:


> Surely the incoming and outgoing tides do this twice a day? Rocks and pebbles banging against each other and rolling around is what gives them their shapes.


Sounds like a typically spurious way to create a revenue stream...Give a petty bureaucratic organisation like a council any opportunity, no matter how nonsensical, and it will take it...


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## zozo (24 Aug 2018)

Tim Harrison said:


> Haha...that sounds like a very good standard defence



It's actualy a very old joke about a few fellows stealing sand from a construction site.. And as many old silly jokes it's probably based up on true facts.
But it likely will not work everytime.. But worth a try..


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## Lee iley (25 Aug 2018)

LondonDragon said:


> Be warned when collecting stuff for your fish tanks!
> 
> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...ebbles-cornwall-beach-threatened-prosecution/


Wow didnt know this I have collected loads of pebbles over the past 18month for my tanks I didn't see any signs though on the 2 beaches I got mine from Morecambe and fleetwood beaches in Lancashire. Also drift wood what I could find aswel. I will look in the future now thanks for this post.


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## PARAGUAY (30 Aug 2018)

I stopped feeling guilty when I saw the JCB at the far end of the beach loading up presumibly for your local Garden Centre


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## PARAGUAY (30 Aug 2018)




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## PARAGUAY (30 Aug 2018)

Always ask when collecting wood


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## BarryH (31 Aug 2018)

PARAGUAY said:


> I stopped feeling guilty when I saw the JCB at the far end of the beach loading up presumibly for your local Garden Centre



I couldn't agree more. I live in Derbyshire and we have to really large aggregates companies and along with hundreds of builders merchants and DIY sheds, their yards are stocked full of pebbles of all shapes and sizes. There never seems to be any balance in this World. It seems it's OK to take pebbles by the lorry load but not one or two in your pocket.


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## zozo (31 Aug 2018)

It often goes as it comes.. If you don't have a permit they likely will not nag about 1 or 2 stones, sticks what ever.. If you already start draging around 10 or more i can understand questions are asked to please put them back where you found them.

A good example is those casted ant nests.

 It surfaced the internet a while ago didn't take long and it got a bit to popular and over exploited. Bunches of kids running around with melting stoves in the woods destrying each nest they came accross.. I believe now you need a permit to do so.

That's how people are, if you allow it and it triggers a local trend it'll spread like a wildfire out of controll.

And it indeed is completely bonkers.. I live a mile from a nature reserve park.. There is only one allowed to destroy it, a companycalled Sibelco exploiting the sand pit smack in the middle. The resently got a new permit to dig till 2030 to dig further into the park.. Despite all the protests and petitions.. It's the best and finest quartz sand in the world, to much money involved. But if we normal citizens walk in the park and we dare to put one toe from the path and if you get spotted by a ranger.. You're fined.. Ranger also are complaining about citizens and lose dogs.. They got the county order to act more drasticaly with sanction.  And than you maybe walk 10 metres besides the diggers fens. And a month later that same spot you got fined is gone, dug up and the fense moved further into the park. 

But the officials say, don't worry, we have an agreement with the exploiter.. They need to make it a nature park again when they are done digging after 2030.. 

I live at the red cross at the bottom.. They can only dig into the park the next 12 years and likely more, there is no other way..
The park is an alledged national protected nature reserve? At least we as normal people are treated like that if we walk there.


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## AverageWhiteBloke (31 Aug 2018)

I make no apologies for saying if I find an interesting piece of wood or stone I'm having it as long as its not disturbing any wild life. C'mon man, we're hunter gatherers by nature. Has it come to this where you can't pick a bit of dead wood up without worrying. The council who forced the holiday maker to return the stones are just idiots and should have used some discretion IMO. Fair enough, the laws are in place to stop dodgy local builders and diy'ers filling a trailer for free back fill or sand and the new fad of wood burners has people robbing woods and that needs to stop but some common sense needs to be applied. What about people who find a nice branch to use as a walking stick while out rambling, do they need to leave it where they find it? What about the sand in my flip flops or left over in a kids sand castle bucket after a day at the beach, are they going to enforce that as well?


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