Coast guard cracks down on illegal Ischia beach business

(ANSA) - Ischia, August 22 - Coast Guard officers from this sun-bleached island swooped on a dazzling beach Friday and seized scores of illegal sun beds and illegally positioned beach umbrellas, the Coast Guard said. Officers confiscated as many as 50 sun beds for holidaymakers to rent on Ischia's renowned Cava beach as well as 15 umbrellas cheekily dug in the sand also for hire without license but found no trace of the manager of the unauthorised business who had evidently fled before the crackdown on his activities. Some of the sunbeds were stacked inside an illegally built hut, which authorities plan to demolish. Local authorities have battled in recent years to ensure the Cava beach remains entirely free to the public, the only one on the island where none of the sand is hived off for paying sun-worshippers.