COMMUNITY CELEBRATIONS AS PORTHTOWAN WINS BLUE FLAG AWARD

PORTHTOWAN BEACH ASSOCIATION

Thanks to the hard work of multiple community groups and associated organisations, Porthtowan is celebrating its 2022 Blue Flag Award and the Seaside Award and is inviting the community to join them on Saturday 14^th May 2022 for a celebration between 11am and 1pm.

The prestigious Blue Flag Award acts as a guarantee that a beach is among the finest not only in the country, but globally. The awards are given to coastal destinations for the May to September season that boast the highest quality of water, facilities, safety, environmental education and management.

The Porthtowan Beach Association (PBA) has coordinated the application for the 2022 Blue Flag Award. The PBA has worked hard over the years to promote the area and this includes the release of a celebratory film thanks to local film maker Charlie Fripp of Fieldgrazer Productions.

Niki Willows, Chairperson of the PBA says ‘Porthtowan has a great proactive community who are very proud of their village and beach, Porthtowan Beach would not have won this wonderful accolade without the support and commitment of the following local educational and environmental initiatives; Porthtowan Surf Life Saving Club, St Agnes Marine Conservation Group, Surfers Against Sewage, Porthtowan Dunes Community Group, 2 Minute Beach Clean and the many other people and local businesses in the community who care and look after their local spot. We look forward to celebrating with them all on Saturday 14^th May on the beach and at Blue Bar with our community event!’.

At 11am on Saturday 14^th May, the event will kick off with a beach clean open to all ages and abilities. At midday, the Blue Flag and Seaside Awards flag will be brought in from the sea by an RNLI lifeboat in a joint training activity with Porthtowan Surf Life Saving Club, a procession will take place up the beach in an Olympic-style relay before being raised at Blue Bar. This is in preparation for the start of the Bathing Season on May 15th. This year the flags will be raised by Melissa Reid, Britain’s Paralympic Medalist & Partially-Sighted three times Surfing World Champ

Niki continues ‘I am absolutely delighted, everyone who lives in the village and our many repeat visitors know that Porthtowan is a very special place, these flags show it is amongst the best beaches in Europe. This community works so well together throughout the whole year and this award for the May to September season is the icing on the cake, especially after the past couple of years! Massive thanks to the PBA committee for their brilliant team work, Blue Bar for hosting our meetings, tying flags to poles and maintaining the flag pole too, and thanks also to Visit Cornwall and Cornwall Council for their sponsorship and support with the application. This is a real community award which many people in the village work very hard to achieve.’