Blue Flag Award Day 2023

What an utterly fabulous day for flag raising at our Blue Flag Award Day 2023! Glorious blue skies and our classic turquoise ocean.

I just wanted to thank the enormous amount of people in our community who contribute to the Blue Flag Award Day 2023.

Where to start?

This week we’ve had Kelvin and crew mending the flagpole, Tracey from the shop baking cakes, a new delivery from Becky of bags and grabbers for the Beach Clean board and Lizzie at Monkeypuzzle printers kindly making our new signs for the main carpark.

Caring for your environment

Today Beth & Ben from Aggie Marine Conservation group set up the Surfers Against Sewage kit with new grabbers made from ghost gear. These are from Waterhaul.

Cakes

Cllr Diana Rodda kindly helped put new bags in the beach clean board as Adam and team checked out the new flag rope and tying possibilities. In the meantime Les from Porthtowan Village Stores delivered 200 pop cakes baked by Star Baker Tracey. These not only looked amazing but were delicious.

Porthtowan Surf Life Saving Club

The RNLI, Adam and the SLSC put on a stirling show with the flags arriving on (I think!) the new inshore rescue boats from New Zealand. Then paraded up the beach to the pole at Blue Bar where the children were rewarded with Tracey’s cakes. The adults tried them too!

Here come the flags!

Zelah takes the Porthtowan flag

The kids take the Blue Flag from Lifeguards

The seaside award too

Photos

All this was photographed by Rebecca and Daisy from Porthtowan Surf Photos.

https://www.instagram.com/porthtowansurfphotos/

Hospitality

Thanks to Luke and Jenny at Blue Bar for all of their help this week and on the day.

Brilliant team work and a whole heap of community spirit on show.

The Flag….and why bother??

Here are some positive reasons why we bother to apply.

Public toilets must be available on a blue flag beach.
Water testing during the bathing season helps monitor the summer seas.
Environmental studies and reports carried out by local groups who are not government funded.
The pictures show how this event brings the community together to look after our own beach environment and surrounding area.
The local groups involved keep an eye on the dunes, signage and report to the government and council agencies where problems arise. All for the benefit of our beach users.

More detailed information is here: http://porthtowanbeach.com/awards/