Dad who dug hole on beach for toddler son’s is told to fill it in after complaints

BEACH bosses ordered a dad to fill in a 6ft hole he dug in the sand for his four-year-old son after members of the public complained it was "dangerous".

Safety officers approached Nathan Crossley, 43, at 3pm yesterday after he was spotted digging the huge hole in Cleethorpes, Lincs.

Passers-by alerted the beach authorities to the hole after noticing Nathan work on it for an hour with his kids.

The family were visiting the beach after a difficult weekend.

Nathan's son Mason, 4, had been sick in hospital and wanted to play on the beach to take his mind off his condition.

A manager for beach safety said: "His young son had been in hospital and he had promised him he would do it for his bucket list.

"He just wanted to take a picture of him in the hole and he later filled it in."

One beach-goer told Grimsby Live that the dad was made to fill the hole because it risked damaging the tractor that cleans the beach every morning.

An eyewitness said: "There was a child who died on the beach down south when the walls of the hole collapsed on them.

"It's a dangerous thing to do. We watched the dad digging it out for an hour."

Nathan's partner and mother to his kids Miranda Cottingham said the family, from Misterton, were approached by beach officers on Saturday after noon to give them safety advice.

She said: "They came to see what we was doing, all they asked us is to fill the hole in once we had finished as someone had reported us for digging an industrial hole in the beach.

"They gave us safety advice and then off they went.

She added: "Our son Mason is a type 1 diabetic and he had to be put to sleep to have a few teeth taken out.

"It was a massive ordeal for him, he's only just turned four and all he wanted to do was dig a big hole on the beach.

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"His dad likes to do things to the extreme and dug a huge hole for him.

"We do see the funny side to the story but Nathan's very sensible and he knew what he was doing. We knew the tide times so he knew nobody was at risk.

"We were just a happy little family making memories."