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Keep Britain Tidy honours local councils with prestigious beach awards
Keep Britain Tidy, a leading environmental charity, announces the winners of the prestigious Blue Flag and Seaside Awards for summer 2024. The awards spotlight the efforts of local (parish and town) councils in enhancing England's coastal areas.
The Blue Flag and Seaside Awards aim to improve England’s coastline and promote the country’s best beaches. The beaches are assessed against criteria encompassing safety and services, environmental information, water quality, and environmental management.
This summer, five of the country’s best beaches will fly a Blue Flag to celebrate their success. Among these beaches are Dymchurch Beach (Dymchurch Parish Council), Seagrove Bay (Nettlestone and Seaview Parish Council), Springvale Beach (Nettlestone and Seaview Parish Council), Swanage Central (Swanage Town Council) and Weymouth Central (Weymouth Town Council).
Weymouth Central (Weymouth Town Council) has been awarded the Blue Flag and Seaside Award for another year. Weymouth Central demonstrated safety and services (such as first aid and lifeguards), environmental information (including displaying details about local ecosystems), water quality (Blue Flag beaches must meet the excellent water quality standard as set out in the EU bathing water directive and Seaside Award winners must meet the sufficient standard) and environmental management (including litter and waste).
Jane Biscombe, town clerk at Weymouth Town Council, said, “Weymouth has a beautiful stretch of award-winning coastline which, as a town council, we are so proud to maintain.”
Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, said, “These awards are a credit to the collective efforts of beach managers, volunteers, residents and businesses who have worked tirelessly to maintain, protect and improve some of our best-loved and most popular beaches and we’d like to take this moment to recognise and applaud them. The Blue Flag is the world’s most recognised award for beaches and marinas, and to qualify, each applicant must meet and maintain a series of stringent environmental, educational, safety and accessibility criteria. Seaside Awards are presented to the best beaches in England and celebrate the quality and diversity of our coastline.”