Council urged to pursue Blue Flag status for Meath coastline

An East Meath councillor has called on Meath Co Council to work towards achieving Blue Flag status for Bettystown beach and Green Coast Awards of Mornington, Laytown, and Gormanston beaches for the 2024 bathing season.

Fine Gael Cllr Sharon Tolan tabled the notice of motion at the July meeting of the council.

Officials replied that in order to qualify for the Blue Flag a series of stringent environmental, educational, safety and accessibility criteria must be met and maintained and applications for Blue Flag status are judged against 33 criteria before they are awarded.

The council is now examining the criteria with a view to making an application for a Blue Flag for Bettystown “as it is considered that a number of recent and ongoing developments, including the development of the community building, and the substantial removal of all cars from the beach enhance the prospects for getting the flag”.

At a recent ceremony Bettystown and Mornington beaches were granted Green Coast Awards for 2023.

“While Mornington retained its Green Coast Flag, this is the first time such an award has been granted for Bettystown beach and recognising the sterling efforts of Tidy Towns and other groups and individual working with the council in keeping both beaches in pristine condition”, the officials said. They said that applications to retain both Blue Flags and Green Coasts are made at the end of each year and while requests to add other areas can be considered this will be dependent on sufficient resources being available to administer the scheme, they added.