Environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy has announced the winners of the prestigious Blue Flag and Seaside Awards for Summer 2023, with Sandown beach among them.
This year Sandown has again met the high standard required to be awarded the Blue Flag Award – the only beach on the Island to receive 1 and among just 78 beaches nationwide. Sandown also received the Seaside Award – 1 of 128 beaches nationwide to achieve the status along with Seagrove and Springvale (non-bathing) on the Island.
Sandown Mayor Paddy Lightfoot said:
“The Blue Flag reflects the investment the Town has made to provide Beach Lifeguards, installing Buoys in the Bay, a new Public Toilet at Eastern Gardens, as well as working with Sandown & Shanklin Independent Lifeboat – this is very much a team effort.”
Isle of Wight High Sheriff Dawn Haig-Thomas added:
“Visitors to a beach flying a Blue Flag or Seaside Award can be assured the beach will be clean, safe and meet the highest environmental standards, as well as international bathing water quality standards. Many congratulations to Sandown for achieving both.”
Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive, Allison Ogden-Newton OBE said:
“The Blue Flag is the world’s most recognised award for beaches and marinas and, to qualify, each applicant must meet and maintain a series of stringent environmental, educational, safety and accessibility criteria.
“We’d therefore like to recognise and applaud all those who have worked so hard to protect and improve some of our best-loved and most popular beaches. The collective efforts of beach managers, volunteers, residents and businesses all contribute to the success of these sites in achieving the incredibly high standards demanded.”
The Blue Flag and Seaside Awards are aimed at improving the quality of England’s coastline and promoting the country’s best beaches.
Blue Flag is an international award managed by Keep Britain Tidy on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education. It is only presented to well-managed beaches with water quality defined as ‘excellent’ under the EU Bathing Water Directive and environmental education programmes, while Seaside Awards are presented to the best beaches in England and celebrate the quality and diversity of our coastline.
Among the criteria beaches are assessed against are:
- Safety and services, such as first aid, lifeguards where necessary
- Environmental information including displaying details about local eco systems
- Water quality – Blue Flag beaches must meet the ‘excellent’ water quality standard as set out in the EU bathing water directive and Seaside Award winners must meet the ‘sufficient’ standard.
- Environmental management, including litter and waste.
In more good news for the Island’s beaches, at the time of writing there are currently no sewage pollution alerts in place on the Island.
Its a shame about all the war zone buildings just over the road. Come on council get it sorted.
Fear not.
The Council know what they are doing.
Let all the large Victorian buildings become an eyesore and attract feral arsonist types, then AND only then , will the public be glad to allow them to be demolished and the Councils symbiotic ‘relationship’ with the Pinks of Captiva will continue to grow.
See the plan big money involved so slowly slowly
I’d be glad to get rid of the victorian buildings
Lovely beach, and Blue Flag is well deserved.
But who’s rescuing the town centre. A desperate place.
IW Council are to blame. I can only imagine they
don’t know what they are doing.
A decent Council would act, this council, is clueless.
Should of kept the Banksy
Slightly less pooh on the beaches than there is in the rest of the town. It’s about time Sandown got flushed away. Nobody wants to go there anyway.
Speak for yourself. It’s a fantastic place to live.
Such a shame the rest of Sandown looks like It was
Blitzed and the rubble was not cleared up.
Come on IW Council clean up Sandown.
All businesses in Sandown should STOP paying business rates until
the area is cleaned up.
You clearly haven’t visited. The rest of Sandown looks perfectly fine. Only the High Street and Esplanade looks scruffy.
That is very true, but if the Council does not improve the High Street soon
how many more shops will close.
Fields is looking like they will be the next to go, Sandown High Street use to
be a great place those days can return but action must be taken.
This Council is useless
So that’s why the town precept went up by 49%. Typical council, the modern day thief that the police allow
Just make sure you drive to the beach with your eyes shut as the town is a dive
Lovely beach but keep looking out to sea and don’t look back on the esplanade,it really is a joke now
Compulsory purchase the victorian hotels and rebuild the area with something for the community and holiday makers a like.
Best beach in a dump is like a polished turd.
The neglect over the last 20 years in criminal.
The Isle of Wight Council needs to stop putting so many conservation restrictions on older property’s or risk more parts of the island becoming run down and derelict.
I want to upgrade my house but I’m not allowed to replace my windows and front door with new wooden Energy efficiency versions of the same style but instead can replace like for like costing 4 times the price as they have to specially hand made with wafer thin glass.
Wafer thin glass. Yum… Delicious
Sandown’s lovely,…If you keep looking out to sea that is.