The Supreme Audit Office checked how officials counteract the seashore degradation in the Hel Peninsula and the Vistula Spit. The audit revealed that the seashores were not properly protected against erosion and illegal business activity. Building facilities were erected illegally on the seashores. It was one of the reasons why the shoreline changes went out of control. Also, the protection against natural seashore erosion could not stop the destroying impact of the sea.
The audit also showed that the persons running campsites in the Hel Peninsula lawlessly disturbed the shoreline from the side of the Puck Bay. They heaped up beaches to expand their surface which went out of control and did not comply with any procedures. As a result, the shoreline moved from 1.5 to 60 metres into the sea on the shoreline section of nearly 4 kilometres. The lawless expansion of the beaches (by 7.12 hectares in total from 1997 to 2013) ended in environmental damages, such as destroying the habitats of protected species being part of the Nature 2000 network. Another consequence was devastation of reed beds and dunes which are natural barriers protecting seashores against erosion and floods.
Following the audit, NIK reported five suspicions of a crime to district prosecutor’s offices. They were related to the construction of building facilities without required licences or reports. In one case - concerning the lawless land development in Jurata - investigation has already started. Other four notices are being reviewed by the prosecutor’s office.
