People answer Balbriggan Tidy Towns call to clean beaches.
A bright calm Saturday morning on Balbriggans front beach and more than 30 volunteers arrive for the now annual beach clean up. Clean Coasts’ Big Beach Clean took place on the weekend all over Ireland. This is part of an International Coastal Cleanup event, with the International Ocean Conservancy.Last year nearly 800,000 volunteers in 94 countries removed 8,164 tonnes of marine litter from the world’s oceans.
Work Done by Balbriggan Volunteers
Collected five bags of litter, one heavy lorry tyre, and miscellaneous bits of heavy metal from back beach at Seapoint.
Collected one bag of litter from main beach, grassy banks and one abandoned bicycle (P.W.O.) from Church street
Collected litter from harbour area and lighthouse pier.
Tidied away concrete block supports for lifeguard hut site and mowed grass and weeds from where lifeguard hut was recently removed.
Cleaned sand from gullies in Convent Lane underpass and steps leading to beach
A low bag count of rubbish and less larger items are testament to the continued work by Fingal County Council who now regularly litter pick both beaches. Growing numbers of Balbriggan Tidy Towns volunteers continued attention to tidying and now bigger projects and initiatives are really paying off and they must be commended.
It is worth mentioning that Balbriggan Tidy Town volunteers meet EVERY Saturday at 11am at the beach hut and always welcome new people.
A very grateful team of hard working volunteers were given sustenance courtesy of SuperValu Balbriggan. SuperValu have always been a great supporter of Balbriggan Tidy Town initiatives.
The Tidy Towns volunteers are a great asset to Balbriggan and need our support and help.
Beach Landscaping Project
Green Marram Grass
I was there myself with my kids who helped litter pick the beach and harbour area. Balbriggan has a wonderful beach and the amenity is well used. We have spent many great summers days on the beach and this summer was particularly special with the fantastic weather. These summer days out on our on our beach got me thinking about the landscaping and work that needs to be done in this area to make improvements. One of the big issues I have seen over the years is the constant coming and going between Iarnród Éireann and Fingal County Council over responsibility for the banks between the path and train station wall. Every year this bank gets overgrown and there is a row over who is to maintain the area.
I feel a project should be taken on and costed to properly landscape this bank area and the walls of the train station painted and or cladding applied to make this more presentable.
I got talking to one of Balbriggan Tidy Towns lifers Ronan, we talked about this species of Green Marram Grass (pic above) that has begun growing on Balbriggan beach. I remembered reading about a project on Wexford beaches where this species was transplanted to landscape the area. I believe also this plant has helped in Skerries again being managed to prevent sand blowing off the beach and onto the road and paths.
I promised Ronan I would look up this activity and find our more. I have discovered many projects where Marram Grass has been used as a defence of coastal erosion and keeping sand for escaping onto local roads.
My suggestion is to look at striping the existing vegetation from the banks and transplanting this Marram Grass to the area. It would seem to require little or no maintenance, it is an indigenous species and would suit the landscape.
See here details of a project to transplant this species for a erosion prevention
DOWNLOAD PDF: A Practical Guide to Marram Grass Planting: A Natural Coastal Defence
