Mayo has topped the poll for the highest number of blue flags awarded to any one county in Ireland this summer.
The announcement that 13 Mayo beaches retained their blue flags as well as the news that the county picked up six Green Coastal Awards is welcome during this stint of hot weather. However, a plea has been sent out to beach users in the county to bring their litter home.
While Mayo Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony has welcomed the announcement that there are more blue flag beaches in Mayo than in any other county in Ireland, he has warned against complacency when it comes to keeping our beaches clean.
“The awarding of the blue flags simply confirm everything that we already knew and that is that we have the best beaches in the country. However, with that, comes a responsibility to ensure that they remain the best and litter control at our beaches is an essential part of keeping the blue flags.
“With the beautiful weather we have had all week long our beaches have been extremely busy and ironically, on the day that the Blue Flag Awards were announced, I received quite a number of phone calls about litter being left on the beaches by groups of people.
There was a certain amount of criticism of Mayo County Council for not emptying bins quickly enough on some beaches but the vast majority of the callers made the point that the onus was on the people visiting the beach to keep it clean.
“It doesn’t require a huge effort by people to bring their litter with them from the beach. If the bins are full that doesn’t mean that’s it fine to leave rubbish on the beach and my appeal to people would be to leave the beach in the same way that they find it when they arrive there. Our beaches are a magnificent facility and we have to look after them,” he said.
Director of Services for Mayo County Council Mr Peter Hynes said Mayo County Council and all of Mayo should be very proud of the achievement. Mayo Blue Flag beaches include Old Head, Bertra, Carrowmore, Clare Island, Mulranny, Dooega, Doogort, Keem, Keel, Golden Strand, Elly Bay, Mullaghroe, Ross.
The Green Coastal Awards have been awarded to Whitestrand, Termon, Silverstrand, Portacloy, Srah and Ballycastle Beach.
