Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Angus Council could lead the way in preserving WWII coastal defences

CR0013285

Council leader calls for sections of Montrose's  WWII coastal defences to be preserved as erosion puts them under threat.

....Pic Paul Reid
CR0013285 Council leader calls for sections of Montrose's WWII coastal defences to be preserved as erosion puts them under threat. ....Pic Paul Reid

Angus could lead the way in Scotland by protecting the remnants of World War Two coastal defences.

David Fairweather, leader of Angus Council, is working with senior staff to nominate defensive positions to be preserved by heritage watchdog Historic Environment Scotland (HES) – and is urging other coastal councils to follow suit.

The call comes ahead of the Year of Coast and Waters in 2020 which celebrates the coastline of Scotland with a series of events.

Mr Fairweather previously spoke out after noticing a number of World War Two placements, hastily built when Britain entered the war in 1939, were falling victim to coastal erosion and in some cases, vandalism.

The proposal has now taken a step forward and members of the public are invited to contact Mr Fairweather to nominate structures for inclusion in the application.

Structures successfully put forward would be added to the HES scheduling of monuments of national importance.

Mr Fairweather said: “There are different types of defensive positions and I think ideally, we would submit an application to schedule a representative cross section of them.

“Although scheduling might be normally associated with castles or stately homes, it can, quite rightly, include structures of historical significance that are utilitarian and modest in design.

“I’d also like to see an event at some of these locations added to the diary of the Year of Coast and Waters to help people put these buildings and other items into the perspective of the dark days of the war.”

The most common remaining coastal defence systems are concrete blocks, sometimes called ‘dragon’s teeth’.

Rows of the blocks were placed at potential landing places and were designed to slow down German armour in the event of an invasion, funnelling them into ‘killing zones’ where the intention was that troops armed with anti-tank would pick them off.

,picture shows; local man Dennis Kennedy (54) pictured by the painted beach defences.

A number of more substantial structures including brick and concrete anti-aircraft gun sites, observation posts and pillboxes can still be found throughout Angus.

In 2017, Angus artist Jilly Henderson received a mixed reaction when she decided to paint four of the dragon’s teeth in bright colours.

At the time, Ms Henderson said: “We thought it would be a nice thing for Arbroath to have something bright and summery to look at.”