Clean beach?

$What\'s on$

Cloughey Beach Cloughey Bay has a sandy beach over a mile long curving from Ringbuoy Point at its Northern extremity to Slanes Point in the South. At high tide most of the sand is covered but at low tide an extensive area of foreshore is exposed especially at the Southern end. The bay faces South East and a long spit of stones running from Ringbuoy Point to North Rock provides protection from the normal swell of the Irish Sea. The bay enjoys relatively flat water suitable for a range of water sports and is popular with wind and kite surfers, water skiers and Jet-skiers. There is no pier or jetty or safe anchorage so not many boats are moored in the bay. Most of the speed and sail boat users launch from the beach. The south end of the beach has a good variety of wading and sea-birds and you can read more on the birdwatching page on this website. Keeping the beach clean For everyone, the experience of the beach and the Warren is spoiled is there is a lot of rubbish around. If nobody removes it, the rubbish just accumulates and gets worse. If the place is kept clean, others are much less likely to throw away their rubbish. Cloughey beach has always been relatively clean as the wind and tidal action help to move on a lot of the lighter material that is washed up. The heavier stuff such as fish-boxes, old tyres, oil drums, would remain on the beach as eyesores if not removed by public-spirited walkers, and the regular beach clean-ups organised by the CDCA. CDCA project to clean up the beach This summer (2009) CDCA began a coordinated program of regular beach cleaning. As well as several large-scale clean-ups using the local school and groups of volunteers, quite a few regular beach walkers have continued to collect rubbish on a regular basis and report their results to CDCA coordiator, Eric Rainey. Over the summer, our volunteers have removed enough rubbish to fill over 100 black bin bags, as well as a lorry-load of larger items. How you can help us to keep the beach clean - all the time! If you walk on the beach regularly you can help to keep it clean by bringing a plastic bag with you and filling it with any plastic and other rubbish you find. If you want to do this on a regular basis, contact Eric Rainey of the CDCA (tel 42771603) who will provide you with a litter picker, gloves and a few black bags. He will also want you to report how much rubbish you pick up - for our records. Water quality Through the CDCA, Cloughey Beach received a Green Coast award in 2008. Since then we have commissioned a series of water quality tests to check how our beach measures up against national and international standards. To date the results have been encouraging though they will not be published until the full series is completed. CDCA has taken this step following the commissioning of the new Waste Water Treatment Works at Slanes Point which treats all the sewage and waste water from Cloughey before it enters the sea. Until 2009, there was a basis screening process to prevent solid material entering the sea but the liquid sewage was discharged directly, causing significant pollution to the water in Cloughey Bay. Now things have improved and people can paddle, swim and play in the bay without the risk of encountering high levels of pollution. We are hopeful that Cloughey Beach will become recognised as one of the cleanest beaches in Northern Ireland - for water quality and absence of rubbish. Stop Press 23/10/09 - CDCA wins main awards at Tidy NI Clean Coasts competition - read the full story.

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