No flag award puts Bray in the blues

June 1998

Three County Wicklow beaches are among 74 around the country which have been awarded with coveted Blue Flags for 1998.

But while the results of the annual awards cheme was a source of jubilation in one part of the county, it was the cause of bitter disappointment in another as Brittas Bay and Greystones all collected, but Bray missed out once again.

Wicklow’s winners were situated and North and South Beaches in Brittas Bay, and at Greystones Beach, providing a timely boost for all three destinations at the start of the summer holiday season.

The failure of Bray to win a Blue Flag is a big disappointment in the town, particularly as the opening of a new, state-of-the-art sewerage system at a cost of millions of pounds less than a decade ago was supposed to put an end to the town’s pollution problems.

Indeed in the years immediately after the new facility came into operation, Bray Beach did win the Blue Flag, but more recent times have seen the town consistently fail to make the grade.

The latest failure has been compounded by the fact that Bray was the only beach in the county which was rejected after applying for Blue Flag status.

Others failing to make the grade apparently decided that discretion was the better part of honour when they declined to apply.