'The Blue Flag awards are actually good news for the communities concerned'

A personal view from East Devon Leader Paul Arnott.

Many moons ago, I was living in reduced circumstances paying my way through a Psychology degree at Exeter Uni with a tiny grant and no other support except working every vacation to save to survive another term. I was very lucky, however, to be offered a couple of affordable places to live as I progressed and then graduated, one in Bonhay Road near St David’s station and the other on The Strand in Topsham.

One of the subjects we studied was known as “cognitive dissonance”, a term that has to an extent now passed into the wider language. When used today, it essentially means how we feel when confronted with two entirely incompatible aspects or facts. Last weekend, that happened on a huge scale, when many of the residents of our seaside towns heard via East Devon District Council that Beer, Exmouth, Seaton and Sidmouth Town beaches had been awarded Blue Flag Status from Keep Britain Tidy on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education.

It would be an understatement to say that residents were gobsmacked, having spent winter witnessing repeated sewage spills with the seawater not fit to enter. Let me just say that, as an example, the Exmouth Facebook pages were boiling over with cognitive dissonance. Or WTF to coin one particular acronym. Understandably so.

Too make it odder, within days of the Blue Flag Awards being announced, there was a superb protest by the Friends of the River Exe with Surfers Against Sewage for a Paddle Out at Exmouth beach. More surreal, along Lyme Bay at Brixham thousands of residents were told to boil their tap water by South West Water, and dozens succumbed to diarrhoea, after cryptosporidium entered the fresh water supply.

EDDC got a bit of a leathering, a classic example of shooting the messenger, for announcing the Blue Flag prizes. I want to assure readers that as far as South West Water and the government are concerned, we are still wholly and actively on the front foot having, as many may recall, voted formally that we have no confidence in SWW a few months back. Much is happening which will be made known as events unfold.

However, and this is the dissonant bit, the Blue Flag awards are actually good news for the communities concerned, all of them needing tourism as a key part of their economies. Crucially, the measurements taken to win this status were between 15th May and 30th September last year, the summer season. It seems highly likely that if these measurements had been taken over the winter, a Brown Flag may have been more apt.

It's worth pointing out that water quality is not the only criterion. We have provided track matting at Seaton and Beer, soon at Sidmouth and Budleigh, to assist disability access. Facilities such as taps, refill points and benches are adjudged very good. In Exmouth through our concessions around five thousand children per year are introduced to water sports. And much more.

All the above means that for the crucial summer season the work of East Devon District Council and the many local businesses and volunteers is something we can all be proud of. In the rare event of a summer pollution incident, we will raise red flags, and information boards with QR codes will give up to date information.

I hope this helps. Please enjoy the beaches this summer, but if you’re fed up with how the government has lost control of SWW, keep protesting too. I will continue to do both.