Councillors warn against neglect of Blue Flag beaches

Anton McNulty

MAYO County Council have been warned not to allow mismanagement to result in the loss of another Blue Flag beach similar to what occurred in Ross beach.
Ross beach near Killala lost its prestigious Blue Flag for 2016 because the necessary lifeguard cover was not on duty during inspections the following year. The issue was raised at yesterday’s (Monday) monthly meeting of Mayo County Council where councillors from coastal regions called on the council to ensure this does not occur again.
Mayo currently has eleven Blue Flag beaches with five of them on Achill Island and local councillor Paul McNamara said he feared for their future status if the Council neglect them in a similar way to Ross.
Cllr McNamara said there were issues over toilet opening hours in Keel beach and felt it was not good enough they were only open for a short number of hours a day.
“It is my opinion that some people think that the Achill summer season does not start until the schools close but in Westport it is all year round. It is unacceptable that the lifeguards are responsible for opening toilets when they go on duty at 12 o’clock. This is unacceptable for the people and tourists in Achill and that should not happen. I spent the months of May and June asking for toilets to be opened, its shouldn’t come to that,” he said.
His comments were supported by Westport-based councillor Christy Hyland who said that the beaches were the ‘bread and butter’ of tourism in the county and they should not be neglected. He added that beaches were used all year around and were not just used in July and August.
Killala-based councillor Jarlath Munnelly welcomed the decision by Mayo County Council to operate Ross beach as if it is a Blue Flag beach. He said there was nothing wrong with the water quality and it was a matter of recruiting more lifeguards for the season.
“I don’t want to see this happen again, the loss of the Blue Flag was something that could have been avoided. I think this was a management problem. Let it not happen again and ensure Ross gets its Blue Flag back,” said the Fine Gael councillor.
Cllr Munnelly added there were a number of beaches in the county which did not meet the criteria to be considered for Blue Flags and asked for them to be considered for upgrade to increase the number of flags in the county.