NATIONAL TRUST: ROSELAND AND VERYAN BAY
April’s newsletter coincides with Spring and the need for a clean sweep…
The March beach clean at Porthcurnick joined in The Great British Spring Clean, a nation-wide Keep Britain Tidy event. We also collaborated with the Marine Conservation Society, using their beach litter survey forms to analyse litter. We then put our results into their national data base. Four pairs of beach clean volunteers counted 376 very small and 202 larger pieces of plastic along 100 metres of strandline! In September 2016 we surveyed the same stretch of beach, as part of MSC’s annual Great British Beach Clean, and audited 1211 items of litter.
A hot potato in any discussion of rubbish is the subject of dog poo! Local rangers and volunteers collected 108 bags of the stuff from the entrance to Pendower beach during February. But they shouldn’t have to spend their time doing this! It is the legal responsibility of anyone walking a dog to collect the dog’s poo and dispose of it responsibly.
The message from the rangers is clear: “it is the responsibility of any dog owner or beach user to take away with them any rubbish they generate during their visit…whether that’s sandwich wrappers from a picnic or bags of dog poo”. The National Trust is a charity, whose primary aim is conservation. Is it fair for a charity to be burdened by the irresponsible behaviour of a minority of people who don’t keep our beautiful Roseland countryside tidy when they are out and about enjoying the fantastic places they have access to?
Guidance on government websites is clear: no special bins are required for dog poo bags; they can go in with your general rubbish. So why not invest in a handy bit of kit like a Dicky Bag (www.dickydog.com) and enjoy your walk conscience-free, and your hands free of carrying a poo bag?
This brings me back to beaches and keeping them clean! Please come along for an hour on the first Monday of every month to join our community beach clean volunteers at Porthcurnick, 10am, and Pendower, 2pm. Or a bit further east, you can join the Hemmick beach clean on the first Saturday of every month, 10am.
Dog poo!!! I am a member of the NT and support the great works it does. However I cannot believe how shortsighted the charity is on the subject of dog poo. Why on Earth was the COUNCIL poo bin removed from the public highway just off Carne Beach? The consequences are that since then there are bags of poo being left on the beach and far more poo not being picked up. Our council taxes go towards paying for the Council to empty and maintain the bins whether it bee via the Parish or the County. Total madness! We’re we consulted or yours told that it would be removed? I only saw the latter.
As for Pendower Beach, I do understand that the Rangers don’t really want to pick up a pile of poo bags but wouldn’t it be better for all concerned to site a bin in the car park with a black bag in it so that they can simply take that one out and replace it with a fresh one? Other National Trust areas do exactly that and I for one would be very happy that some of my subscription goes towards clean beaches, and happy people, whether they be dog owners or not. Surely this isn’t rocket science?