Whilst it's extremely heartening that some generous soul had anonymously donated £800 towards regaining the covetous Blue Flag award for Falmouth's Gyllyngvase Beach - something that shouldn't have been necessary if Cornwall Council had honoured its obligations - surely money alone won't be sufficient.

In order to regain the award won't the beach - not only the water-quality - have to be of the cleanest possible standard, something it isn't at present? So, we have to ask, who'll be expected to keep the beach clean given that Cornwall Council isn't interested?

Mark Williams, Falmouth town clerk, has apparently told the BBC that, “We are now in a position to make our own application,” but makes no mention of who'll clean the beach. 

Given that we can’t always rely on the tide to do our dirty work for us, perhaps a start could be made by confining those smelly, disfiguring portable barbecues to the former barbecue location ie, the southern extremity of Gyllyngvase, below the footpath to Swanpool. 

This would free the largest and most popular area of the beach of those horrible, black, trademark, barbecue “smudges” - simultaneously preventing the majority of beachgoers being regularly and thoughtlessly “fumigated.”

Terry Smith,
Cliff Road,
Falmouth