The latest public consultation period for the proposed dredging of the Goodwin Sands may have ended but the campaign team who oppose it are keeping up the pressure.

Recent publicity for the Goodwin Sands SOS campaign has included features on BBC Earth and Radio 4’s From Our Home Correspondent while campaign members have been doing further research on historical dredging.

Joanna Thomson, one of the campaign co-ordinators, said: “A friend from Downs Sailing Club, who has lived here all his life, told me about old articles in the East Kent Mercury which said that only one dredging licence would be issued."

“And in July 1976 and again in April 1979 the Mercury did indeed report that the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries [which has since become Defra] assured the Walmer Inshore Fishermen’s Association that a licence to dredge would be granted for one project only and that it would not be ‘the thin end of the wedge’ for further taking of sand.

“However, as we now know, the government didn’t stick to its pledge as licences were issued for four more rounds of dredging which took place up until 1998.

More than 10 million cubic metres of sand was taken from the Goodwins yet the Environment Agency, Kent County Council and Dover District Council continue to deny that dredging could be part of the coastal erosion problem.

Ms Thomson added: “Experts have always claimed that dredging the Goodwin Sands, which everyone agrees are a natural sea defence, has no impact on coastal erosion but we ignore nature at our peril.”

The current state of the beach at Kingsdown has become such an issue that Dover District Council are meeting with the Wellington Parade Residents’ Association to discuss an unprecedented annual beach recharging programme.”

Amanda Mount, another member of the campaign group and long-time resident of Wellington Parade, said: “Prof Rob Duck, emeritus professor of environmental geoscience at the University of Dundee, recently told me that in his opinion removing 2.5 million cubic metres of sands from the Goodwins would potentially permit larger waves to break onto the shoreline.”

Joanna Thomson added: “Photographs taken between 1906 and 2016 clearly show the extent of the erosion of Kingsdown Beach, and local residents would no doubt appreciate proof from the experts that this ongoing erosion is due solely to natural causes and has nothing to do with the lowering of the level of the Goodwin Sands from dredging.

“The Crown Estate and Dover Harbour Board may be making a tidy sum out of dredging the Goodwins but it comes not only at a price for our environment and heritage, but also at the potential expense of the taxpayer through continued future beach recharging costs and the potential safety of beachfront properties.

“It’s time Defra was made to keep the promise made by its predecessor of 40 years ago and ensure that the last dredge was just that.”