“Heading for the beach, head for the sea.
Belongs to you belongs to me”.
From “Natalie’s Party” by Shack.
I love the beach. Just to kick off my shoes or Birkenstocks and walk on the sand or to submerge my feet in the cool water. I love those rare times where I have needed to stoop and to walk, bent over, into the wind - wrapped up as the white sea foam cascades with my sole aim of enjoying the battering and looking forward to the shelter of a warm cafe…
This week BBC’s Panorama unearthed a frightening story of the state of many of Britain’s beaches and the resultant water quality of our coastlines. One particularly novel stunt was for the reporter to drive an ice-cream van around Cornish beaches and to secretly film customers. When he handed them their ice-cream he warned them that there was a 1 in 7 chance that they might get ill if they ate the ice-cream they all looked baffled and refused to take it.
Who would willingly take that risk? Yet, many of the beaches that are monitored by the Environment Agency and SEPA and which have “good” or “excellent” blue flag status offer such risks for those who venture into the water. This affects those who walk dogs, whose kids play on the beach, surfers, canoeists, kite-boarders, body boarders, etc. You can find out more here.
Surfers Against Sewage are trying to place pressure on Scottish Water to clean up their act. If we get success with our first campaign then we can focus on other Scottish beaches. Our first target is Pease Bay in East Lothian. We need to get 500 signatures by next week. We’re only halfway there. Could you take a few seconds to add your support by clicking here?
Done!
And posted link to the petition on Facebook.
Thanks BK. I’ll let you know the tally next week.