Council vows to retain Mayo’s 13 blue flag beaches

Council vows to retain Mayo’s 13 blue flag beaches


Ciara Galvin

MAYO County Council will endeavour to maintain the current blue flag status on 13 beaches around the county despite the devastating storm damage of recent months.
According to Mayo County Council Director of Services Martin Keating, the council plans to highlight any outstanding damages to beaches to the awarding body An Taisce in the hope that the organisation will allow time for the Council to deal with remaining issues.
“We will go out there to maintain the number of flags,” Mr Keating told the committee of an  Environmental Policy and Agriculture Strategic Policy meeting.
A generic type assessment of beaches, including those without blue flags, is currently underway. Mr Keating said up to 60 sites around the county had been damaged as a result of the storms and that along with the generic type assessments, a further assessment of more ‘sensitive’ beaches would also be taking place. Keating cited Mulranny, Bertra and Keel beaches as locations requiring this specialist assessment. Mr Keating added that the council had a concern about getting those beaches ‘over the line’ and that beach infrastructure will be a priority.
According to the Director of Services, the council has had ‘significant engagement’ with the National Parks and Wildlife Service about the ongoing cleanup operations.
Once the funding allocation of €6.39 million is in place, Mr Keating said the council will have confirmation on specific clean-up and restoration operations.
The funding will be allocated by the Department of Environment, the Department of Transport and the Office of Public Works.
He said an allocation of €500,000 will be put forward for clean-up works to remove debris from beaches.
Priority will then be put on road access, particularly if they are affecting communities.
The committee was told that it is hoped that marine and coastal works would be done by direct labour and that this would be rolled out over a three-to six-month period and would depend on resources at local level.
“Beach infrastructure will be a priority,” said Keating.
Johnny Groden from the Mayo Community Forum described Bertra beach and its destroyed car park as a ‘disaster’, adding that it was ‘pointless’ repairing the car park as future high tides would ‘take that away again’.
Chairman of the committee Peter Flynn praised Mr Keating and his staff for ensuring that funding was applied for and said that though the figure of over €6 million would not resolve all problems, it would help.