Beach Awards and Coastal Campaigns
Keep Scotland Beautiful runs beach award programmes to help improve the quality of local beach environments in Scotland, to assist with the prevention of aquatic litter and reduction of waste and to support environmental education at the beach.
The two award schemes offered are the internationally recognised Blue Flag and the Seaside Award.
Seaside Award flags have been flying at beaches around Scotland wince 1993 highlighting award winning locations. In order to become an award winning beach local authorities, communities or land managers must put them forward. Assessors from Keep Scotland Beautiful then visit the beach and mark it against a list of criteria (30 for a Resort Seaside Award and a minimum of 15 for a Rural Seaside Award beach). If deemed suitable for award status then an application and small fee must be submitted. All applications are then examined, along with comments from the assessment, by a National Beach Award Jury. Only those beaches which meet the standards are presented with an aware. The awards are annual, so every year the same process takes place.
In 1995 Blue Flags first flew in Scotland. The Blue Flag is recognised in 40 countries across the world as an independent accreditation of environmental beach management. Keep Scotland Beautiful assessors visit Blue Flag beaches monthly over the award period and carry out an inspection of all 29 criteria. Blue Flag applications are scrutinised by the National Beach Award Jury and also an International Jury each year.
Keep Scotland Beautiful also chairs the Clean Coast Scotland partnership, sits on the Scottish Bathing Water Review Panel, the National Beach Safety Council, and administers a small grant scheme for communities by designated bathing waters.
Further details on all Keep Scotland Beautiful's involvement in beach management and coastal improvements can be found on these pages, or in turn you can contact beach@ksbscotland.org.uk
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