We ve scraped, we ve replenished and we ve built sea walls. Beaches can and do take care of themselves if we let them be, with a little helping hand after every storm. Why are we supporting the enemies of the healthy resilient beach rather than the beach itself? Have we gone quite mad? Cr Hackett said instead of planning to reinforce the shoreline along part of the coast the community should be planning for retreat from the shore. We don t have to retreat now, she said. We can retreat in 50 years now if we do the right thing but at some stage we have to retreat.