The coastline at Formby has been steadily moving inland for the last hundred years- So what should we do to defend it? Although there will be little threat to housing or commercial property over the next fifty years, the erosion of the coast is gradually squeezing valuble wildlife habitats. But despite this threat, it's only by working with-and not against- natural processes that we can protect are unique coastal heritage. Attempts to prevent change can be particully damaging. Coastal defence structures can appear out of place on an unspoilt stretch of coastline and they may cut off the supply of sand or other sediment which is vital to replenish features futher along the coast. In effect , the construction of a hard defence structure at one point on the coast may rsult in the onset of erosion futher along the shoreline. Natural processes, on the other hand, provide a more flexible defence. There have been dunes on the Sefton Coast for4500 years, and the coast has wandered both seaward and landward of the present shoreline. The sandy shoreline and dune system has acted as aflexible buffer to tidal erosion, never static, but responding to vagaries of tide and wave as well as changes in weather patterns.