Achill’s Blue Flag beaches in danger

LOGIC? Toilets at Keem Bay were left closed until 1pm despite large crowds in attendance at the Achill beach during the fine weather.

Neill O’Neill

SOME of Achill’s beaches are is in danger of losing their coveted Blue Flag status, as services set out as essential in the Blue Flag criteria are not being met. That is according to Achill’s only county Councillor, Paul McNamara, who told yesterday’s (Monday) meeting of the West Mayo Municipal District that he is worried that this time next year the council will be sitting around lamenting the loss of Blue Flag status in Achill, instead of being proactive and doing something about it now.He made specific reference to the fact that both the beaches at Dooega and Golden Strand (Dugort) have no lifeguard cover despite being extremely busy in the recent good weather, and it being the middle of summer. He added that there are only bins on two of Achill’s five Blue Flag beaches - at Keel Strand and Keem Bay. He also said that on the June Bank Holiday weekend, in beautiful weather, the toilets at Keem Bay were not open on the Saturday, despite ‘the place buzzing with people’ until he made inquiries as to why this was, shortly before 1pm. Earlier that week he had raised the issue at a meeting on Clare Island but said nothing had changed that following weekend, until the lifeguards came just before 1pm and opened the toilets. Cllr McNamara further added that he understands that the toilets at beaches outside Westport are open 24 hours a day from June 1 and are serviced by the council.
Stupidity
“We have five of the 12 Blue Flag beaches in Mayo in Achill and we will lose them because we are not providing basic services. I do not want to be here next year like Cllr Munnelly [Jarlath Munnelly] was in Killala lamenting the loss of Blue Flags, but I am telling you all now that we are not doing enough and are not meeting the criteria expected on our Blue Flag beaches in terms of simple things like bins, toilets and lifeguards. There is no overtime being paid and the bins that are there are being emptied by lifeguards, we are not providing services on the Wild Atlantic Way either. It is surely easier to maintain what we have than to have to work to get Blue Flags back if we lose them. It is a marvellous achievement to have five Blue Flag beaches in one tourist destination [Achill], let’s not lose them over stupidity,” he pleaded.
Mayo County Council’s West Mayo area manager, Padraig Walsh, said that beaches are very important but that resources are ‘finite in both money and manpower’. He said a review would be conducted to see what might be done. Director of Services, Tom Gilligan, added that assessments are undertaken on the beaches in Mayo but that it is not always possible to recruit the number of lifeguards needed. He stated that the good weather so far this year would have served to highlight this as the beaches were busier earlier than they usually might be, and reiterated that there are factors at play which are beyond the council’s control.
Cllr McNamara said that he could not accept a risk assessment report that concluded that a lifeguard is not needed on Golden Strand in Achill, where there are 60 mobile homes permanently located next to the beach. He called for this to be addressed, and newly installed Cathaoirleach of the West Mayo Municipal District, Cllr Brendan Mulroy, backed up his Fianna FΡil colleague, saying: “Paul has outlined this very well and if we lose those Blue Flags we cannot say we haven’t been warned.”
Beyond Louisburgh meanwhile, at Cross Strand, Cllr Christy Hyland said that he had a lot of calls on Whit Weekend about the lack of open toilets and stated that if this is a matter of overtime and budgets, something has to be looked at.
“We have a magnificent stretch of the Wild Atlantic Way in Mayo and we have to provide the services that are required,” he said, supported on this by Cllr Tereasa McGuire.