The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Scottish beaches left high and dry
When things are not going to plan, you have two options. One is to knuckle down, work hard and address the issues you face. The other is to ignore it and hope it all goes away.
Unfortunately the Scottish Government has chosen the latter approach when it comes to some of our most precious assets, the beaches which play a massive part in our tourism drive.
Worse than that, they have decided to bury not only their own collective head in the sand but also, much deeper, any evidence which could prove things are not going swimmingly.
As The Courier revealed last week, Keep Scotland Beautiful, the organisation which coordinates the country’s Blue Flag bids, will not be making any applications to the scheme this year.
They are the internationally recognised gold standard but Scotland did not gain any last year, with the last to hold one being Elie Woodhaven in Fife’s Ruby Bay.
The solution seems to be to ditch them in favour of home-grown awards. Presumably their criteria will lead to our beaches actually, y’know, winning awards. The goalposts have been moved more easily than the traditional jumpers you might put down for a game of football by some water in the sun (that’s the golden globe we see in the sky every couple of weeks).
The UK’s Beach Guide quite correctly points out that a Blue Flag beach is not necessarily any better than other beaches, particularly when it comes to some of our smaller, picturesque coves.
But it does guarantee a number of things, particularly if you want a reliable guide to going somewhere with plenty of facilities.
Amongst the 33 targets are water quality, with the most important stipulation that no industrial, wastewater or sewage-related discharges should affect the beach; keeping the beach clean; having public toilets; lifeguard patrol; the availability of drinking water; and accessibility.
Let’s stay sensible. We still have beautiful beaches which will help attract visitors from across the world, as well as providing popular spots for us locals looking for a day out.
It is worth noting, though, that VisitScotland’s “key facts on tourism in 2015”, which was published a few weeks ago, found that day visits declined in both volume and value in 2015.
This included a nominal 0.3% drop in trips by EU visitors although there was a 5% growth in spend.
Dr David Green of the Aberdeen Institute for Coastal Science has warned that moving away from the Blue Flag could have negative repercussions for tourism.
Indeed, it would seem we just don’t want to spend the money on maintaining the standards any more. This is understandable, to an extent. Times are still tough and government pennies are still being pinched, north and south of the border.
Keep Scotland Beautiful has effectively confirmed this by describing Scotland’s Beach Award as an “efficient and cost effective” way of measuring the quality of the nation’s beaches.
This is reminiscent of when the Scottish Government opted out of the Trends in International Maths and Science Survey (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) league tables in 2010 with the official aim of saving £800,000.
Worse data quality and fewer headline problems ensued as a result.
It’s not going brilliantly for our education sector and there’s no reason to believe it will help our environment.