This Sunday (27th May), Tesco Salterton Road are organising a beach clean as part of their “Spring Clean for the Queen” campaign. The clean up will begin at the Maer barbeque area at 2pm.
Volunteers will walk along the beach collecting rubbish before returning to the Maer for a barbeque and free prize draw.
Free text alerts to 5 favourite beaches
South West Water’s BeachLive website has doubled in size in time for this year’s bathing season, including Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton beaches.
BeachLive was launched last year in partnership with the Environment Agency, Surfers Against Sewage, tourism leaders and beach managers. It covers 41 beaches within Devon and Cornwall.
This year, a new facility to receive free text alerts on water quality on up to 5 chosen beaches has already proven popular. SouthWest Water operations director Stephen Bird said:
‘BeachLive is about giving beach users information they can use to make an informed decision on whether to swim or surf. Last year’s trial website received nearly 17,000 page views during the bathing season and we had lots of positive feedback’
Blue flag icons would be displayed on the map where there was no risk to water quality from the operation of combined sewer overflows. Amber updates would be highlighted with email and text messages sent to beach operators and subscribers when significant overflows occurred. Amber flag icons would be removed after 12 hours if all partners and Environment Agency data agreed there had been no significant overflows. This year a red flag icon has been introduced to indicate when a beach has been closed due to other circumstances such as dangerous currents or an oil spill.
On Saturday 12th May, a Big Beach Clean-Up is planned for Exmouth Beach organised by Richard, meeting on the beach by the sand dunes at 11:15am. Since this has been publicised in the local press and through social media with the promise of £5 off a £25 M&S food shop per registered volunteer, help is now at full capacity.
Let’s hope everyone turns up to make a difference!
Exmouth Beach have a number of appeals for clean-ups throughout the year, usually run by environmental groups and sponsored by ethical brands, i.e. Lush and Barefoot Wines. Local business Stuart Line Cruises awards volunteers a free cruise in their regular estuary clean-ups. It will be interesting to see how many people turn up to receive a voucher from a large national retailer in comparison to a local business committed to helping the community. After all, this is not any ordinary beach – it’s an M&S beach (well, on Saturday 12th May at 11:15am it is!).
Some information from MCS website:
The Marine Conservation Society have joined Marks and Spencer in a three year partnership for their Forever Fish campaign, aiming to protect our fish stocks and the marine environment for the future.
Over the next three years, MCS and M&S will be working together to:
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has organised nation-wide beach clean and surveys every year since 1994. Volunteers all around the UK survey beaches for litter types and quantities, and also clean the beach.
The aims of an MCS beach clean are to:
MCS analyses the litter survey results to identify the main sources of litter and the most common litter items. MCS uses these results to tackle beach litter at local, national and international levels.
M&S will encourage its customers to help the MSC to clear our seas of the rising tide of rubbish that is so dangerous to sea life, including seabirds, whales and dolphins (Photo: MCS)
While Big Beach Clean-up is an exciting new addition to the calendar, Beachwatch Big Weekend is a well established and hugely successful event that has been taking place on the third weekend of September for the last 18 years.
On Tuesday 1st May, the annual summer restriction on dogs on Exmouth beach started. The restricted areas, shown pink on this map:
The pink area is dog free between May 1st and September 30th every year.
Taken from the Exmouth Journal;
‘A council spokesman said that uniformed and plain clothes enforcement officers would patrol throughout the summer and people found walking their dogs in banned areas may be served with a fixed penalty notice of £80. Should any cases be taken to court, then fines of up to £1,000 may be incurred.
‘The spokesman added, “Please remember that in any public open space, dog owners must pick up after their dogs and dispose of the faeces correctly. Regular patrols will continue throughout the year and residents are reminded that it an offence to fail to pick up after your dog all year round.” He added that beaches still have areas where dogs are welcome.’
Last summer, Exmouth Beach Blog made an enquiry through the Freedom of Information Act to East Devon District Council to find out that only 1 person was fined.
The RNLI have spent two days in Exmouth (Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 April) carrying out trials of a new class of lifeboat. The Shannon class all-weather is at present undergoing extensive sea and beach trials around the country where she’s been tested out in a range of conditions.
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For more information on the Shannon class trials and other stories relating to Exmouth RNLI, please visit www.exmouth-lifeboat.org.uk.
It’s the first week of “the season”, Good Friday and there’s already signs of holiday-makers in town. The open-top bus from the town to Sandy Bay has started running to an extended route along the beach, as far as the new lifeboat station. The children’s Exmouth Fun Park was full to bursting on Monday, with the fine weather. Probably the most promising signs of “the season” has been the appearance of Liquid Motion watersports in a retail unit in the impending bowling alley. Even more promising was the sound of work being carried out on a bank holiday weekend, in time for the opening in June. Watch this space….
Sharps box, litter pickers, rubbish bags.
The over all rubbish picked over a 2 mile stretch of beach.
Some of the 'sharps' found on the beach. Mainly broken glass & hyper hypodermic needles.
SAS needs your hands on Exmouth beach on 25th March!
The annual SAS Big Spring Beach Clean has been removing marine litter from UK beaches for many years with the help of community volunteers. SAS are calling on the coastal communities across the UK to join them for the SAS Big Spring Beach Clean at beaches nationwide on 24th & 25th March to help make this year’s event the biggest ever.
Come and join members of Exmouth Beach Rescue volunteers at 11am by Foxholes car park tomorrow, Sunday 25th March! Keith Hoppins from EBR said; “There will be refreshments available to all volunteers and the more people we have, the more of the beach we can cover.”
Spring time sadly reveals the true severity of the marine litter issue. After a long winter of storms, before local council beach cleaning operations begin for the summer season, the accumulation of litter can often seem at its worst. The amount of marine litter found on UK beaches has almost doubled in the last fifteen years, with a shocking 1,969 litter items found on every kilometre of coastline*. Typical examples of marine litter include rubbish from beach users, sewage-related debris, waste from commercial shipping, nets and fish boxes from fishing vessels and medical waste.
The SAS Big Spring Beach Clean helps tackle the growing problem of marine litter with the help of regional reps, supporters, SAS members and coastal community volunteers. This year SAS is encouraging dedicated volunteers to organise their own beach clean events, offering support and equipment to help empower communities to take positive action to protect local beaches, surf spots and waterways.
SAS Big Spring Beach Clean events also confront the worsening marine litter crisis through the promotion of SAS initiatives such as No Butts on the Beach, Return To Offender and Think Before You Flush. These encourage further individual and corporate action once the beach clean has finished ultimately helping reduce the amount of litter finding its way onto the beach can into the sea.
Hugo Tagholm, SAS Executive Director says: “Over the past few years SAS has seen a dramatic rise in the number of community volunteers getting involved with our beach clean programmes. Communities want to play their part in tackling the marine litter crisis affecting beautiful beaches everywhere, a visible indicator of the ecological disaster happening in our oceans. The SAS Big Spring Beach Clean empowers communities and educates the public on making an on-going positive difference to coastlines.”
A new Exmouth roller skating group are meeting every Thursday at 6pm, by the town’s clock tower. Set up by Shelley Stammers, the group intends to plan social events such as family meetings, roller discos and charity skates. Skaters should wear knee pads, wrist guards and helmets. Why not join their Facebook group?
Information point at Foxholes
Information points have started to appear along the Jurassic Coast, including this one at Foxholes. Work started at the Geoneedle, Orcombe Point in December and has reported to be on schedule. The boards contain information such as: maps with suggested trails for walkers, toilets and parking, etc.; photos; beach & coastal path safety advice and Countryside Code reminders.
The £400,000 scheme will improve Orcombe Point, the western gateway to the Jurassic Coast and the Geoneedle. The Geoneedle was built in 2002 to mark the official designation of the Jurassic Coastline as a World Heritage Site and was opened by HRH Prince of Wales.
The first phase involved creating a new retaining wall with integrated seating, an orientation point with stone pavers and re-surfacing which will include interpretive stones.
The second phase promised in February (so not bad for them to appear by the 1st!), included signage at Foxholes and along the zig-zag path. Later in the Spring, the part pedestriansisation of Queens Drive will follow.
The scheme has been developed with interpretation specialist Bright 3D and is being carried out by Devon County Council contractor Bridge Civil Engineering Ltd. Planning permission for the scheme was granted in September 2011.
Exmouth Tide Times
The Word on the Beach: