Fylde BeachCare. March March 2018Summary

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1 March March 2018Summary Fylde BeachCare has had another great year of engagement, with two new volunteer groups joining the hundreds of volunteers taking action to help keep our beaches and seas clean. Now with St Annes North and Fleetwood having regular volunteer cleans ups there can be up to 11 beach cleans going on in any one week on the Fylde coast. Along with more volunteers the programme has reached an additional 950 people through events and direct presentations and has been boosted by closer working relationships with Merlin Entertainments Blackpool cluster and the Blackpool Gazette who both supported our successful 10-mile beach clean relay. In the year that Blue Planet II sent ripples of awareness through the media and public, waking people up to the huge problem of ocean plastics, Fylde BeachCare has been locally prominent as project people can engage with to help make real change to their own lives and local environment. Volunteering in numbers 11 beach clean groups, up from 9 last year 327 beach clean events compared to 279 last year 602 new volunteers attending beach clean events compared to 592 last year 8 beach cleans with 234 United Utilities staff and 3 beach cleans with 48 Environment Agency staff 10,220 volunteer hours given to cleaning beaches compared to 8,890 last year 7,670 bags of litter removed from beaches and estuaries, compared to 6,500 last year Press and media in numbers 17 pieces in newspaper press, 2 TV interviews and 6 pieces on local radio Engagement in numbers 10 presentations given Increase of 345 followers on Twitter totalling 2,375 Merged 2 Facebook pages to give 949 likes and added an extra 442 this year 178 new followers on Instagram totalling events attended with volunteer support 950 new people engaged in person 102,500 saved through in kind contributions from partner organisations and volunteer hours

2 March March 2018 Page 1 Volunteer engagement key achievements Engaging with 11 beach & estuary clean groups: Friends of the Estuary (Lytham) Fairhaven Coastal Care St Annes BeachCare St Annes North BeachCare Sea Life beach cleans Cleveleys Beach Care Rossall Beach Residents Rossall Point Beach Care Fleetwood BeachCare Harbour Village Estuary Care Knott End Beach Care 845 unique volunteers engaged in beach cleans Over 7,000 bags of litter collected from Fylde coast Successful volunteer celebration event held at Marine Hall in Fleetwood with highest attendance yet of 62 beach clean volunteers attending to share ideas and experience and hear presentations from United Utilities, the Environment Agency, local authorities, LOVEmyBEACH and Keep Britain Tidy. Say cheeeese Allison Ogden-Newton CEO of Keep Britain Tidy loves a selfie! Formalising links to volunteer groups and increasing self-sufficiency: Beach clean volunteer numbers continue to increase and new volunteers and groups come forward, more engagement on social media Kit, insurance and risk assessments provided to all new groups to support being volunteer-led Good volunteer support with ReFILL scheme so far 11 volunteers have helped sign up businesses

3 Fylde BeachCare March March 2018 Page 2 Community engagement key achievements Engaged 5 Fylde coast schools, giving year group assemblies at St Aidan s High School and Cardinal Allen Secondary School. Invited to have a stand at community events such as St Annes Kite Festival, Healthier Fleetwood, Lytham Coastal Fair and Blackpool & Fylde College Fresher s Fair, engaging over 600 people directly with the help of volunteers Also supported beach cleans for 160 year 7 students at St Aidan s the year 4 class at St Thomas s Primary School, the Green Leaders at Fleetwood High School and 12 Lytham Sixth Form students. In total engaged 480 pupils. Placed 2 more 2 minute beach clean boards at Cleveleys and St Annes with 2 also in Blackpool, and continue to support and promote these with the local authorities. Growing engagement on Twitter from people on the Fylde coast doing a #2minutebeachclean and

4 March March Page 31 Community engagement success stories (1) In the last year Fylde BeachCare has supported the setup of two new volunteer groups, who are now helping to keep the coastal areas where they live clean. These groups are engaging new people in LOVEmyBEACH messages, helping the campaign to reach new audiences, as well as keeping the environment free of litter and promoting local pride and ownership of the coast. St Annes North BeachCare Group In September 2017 a volunteer with the St Annes BeachCare group indicated their keenness to start a regular beach cleaning group at St Annes North, a bathing water beach with a large sand dune system. We agreed to hold some beach cleans here on a Thursday morning, however the original volunteer could not continue with the commitment of running a beach clean event every week. Thankfully another volunteer stepped forward, keen to be involved and happy to take the responsibility of looking after the equipment, having first aid training and coordinating the weekly running of the group. The new lead volunteer, Michael is passionate about beach cleanliness and has instigated giving out whistles for all the volunteers to improve safety whilst on the beach. We took up the idea and created LOVEmyBEACH branded whistles which went out to all volunteers with the quarterly volunteer newsletter. Engaged 113 young people on the National Citizen Service programme in beach cleaning and raising awareness of beach litter with the public. Michael put up posters advertising the beach cleans around St Annes and we put up a large banner at North beach car park to bring in more volunteers, which is working as numbers gradually grow. Fylde BeachCare couldn t exist without the work of amazing volunteers like Michael.

5 March March 2018 Page 4 Community engagement success stories (2) Fleetwood beach clean One bathing beach without a regular volunteer group helping keep it clean was Fleetwood. In March 2017 LOVEmyBEACH sited a 2 minute beach clean board on Fleetwood promenade as a way to help fill this gap and initiate community interest in beach cleans. From here, and with the keenness of Wyre Council we decided to start a Saturday morning monthly beach clean at Fleetwood. The new group has been well received by the community, with 14 people braving the rain for the first clean in January and some volunteers from the Lifeboat station joining the team. Wyre Council Coast & Countryside team continue to coordinate and publicise these beach cleans with support from Fylde BeachCare. What a great day learning about how to keep our beaches clean and the importance of only flushing the 3 p s (pee, poo and paper). Pamela Whitfield United Utilities staff beach cleans Various teams from United Utilities want to spend their volunteering hours coming out on a beach clean. Over this year Fylde BeachCare has organised beach cleaning activities for 234 staff helping to clean St Annes North beach on a section where there is currently no volunteer group. The staff get a lot out of this time together doing something different and practical, and with 8 extra beach cleans a year the beach benefits as do residents and visitors. Here s what some United Utilities staff have said: It is a rewarding and enjoyable day out, which also has a positive impact on the environment and the local tourism industry. I enjoyed working in a group to make a really positive impact, and I would recommend it to anyone. Daniel Giblin Love My Beach is doing an outstanding service, focusing us on how we can take responsibility for keeping the environment clean. Simon Brooks. This was a rewarding experience, as you feel that you ve played your small part for keeping the beach clean plus added to this you are getting some walking exercise and some good fresh air at the same time! Mark Cardwell

6 Fylde BeachCare March March 2018 Page 5 Community engagement success stories (3) Fylde Beach Clean Relay for Great British Spring Clean On 28th February 2018 we organised a beach clean relay covering 10 miles of the Fylde coast, starting at St Annes pier at 9 am and finishing at Rossall beach in Cleveleys at 4.30 pm. Splitting the route into 1 mile sections the volunteers handed over the golden baton (specially sprayed golden litter picker) to the waiting team of litter heroes. There were 75 adults and 20 children involved in the relay, with both local residents and businesses supporting the event. Groups involved included: St Annes-based British Independent Utilities Merlin Entertainment Blackpool Cluster Collected over 100 kg of rubbis h! Lytham Sixth Form College C2V contractors at Anchorsholme Rossall School year 5 juniors Bispham resident Les Pilkington attended his first beach clean as part of the event and added; I really enjoyed the afternoon; it s been great to give something back to the local community. Everyone who lives in the area wants the beach to be clean so I thought why not do something about it? I m planning to help out again and support one of the regular LOVEmyBEACH volunteer groups. Les has been true to his word and is now a founding member of a new Bispham Coastal Care group.

7 March March 2018 Page 6 Engaging with partners and key achievements Significant in kind contributions from volunteers and partner organisations. Taking into account the economic value of volunteer hours and contributions in kind such as storage space, meeting venues and donations by private businesses the total in kind contributions for is 102,500 Promoted business pack and gave away over 700 What not to flush stickers at Stay Blackpool hospitality event. Building relationships with local businesses: Merlin Entertainments in Blackpool supported the What not to flush campaign with a joint press release, interview with Radio Lancashire and displaying posters in toilets across the attractions Blackpool Light Craft Club continue to support the business and school beach cleans at Starr Gate by giving free access to their compound and club house for volunteer use. Acton Drainage are giving out Love Your Drain leaflets to businesses and households experiencing blockages across the North West. Continue to work closely with all 3 Local Authorities on volunteer engagement, practical beach clean matters and events and also spreading the messages of Fylde BeachCare further. This year gave presentations to both Fylde and Wyre Councillors. What More UK, a plastics manufacturer came on a beach clean in Blackpool and took some professional photographs which LOVEmyBEACH can use. The staff wrote a blog for their website and shared the messages to employees. The company have also donated some recycled plastic boxes to the project.

8 March March 2018 Page 7 Engaging with partners and key achievements Catchment partnership engagement, attending partnership meetings and promoting bathing water consideration and the activities of Fylde BeachCare. Organised a Cache In Trash Out geocaching event with Ribble Rivers Trust at Warton where 12 new volunteers came to pick litter on the estuary and find hidden geocaches to add interest to the event. Organised two visits to United Utilities Waste Water Treatment Works site at Preston, one with BeachCare volunteers and another with a group of young people on the NCS programme. All participants gained new insight into how WWTWs operate and the problems flushing the wrong things down the toilet can create! #binit4beaches #peepoopaper Attended two United Utilities stakeholder workshops and the Ribble Roadshow, talking to 60 UU staff about LOVEmyBEACH and employee beach cleans. Organised three successful beach clean events for Environment Agency employees and was part of the meet and greet team at Blackpool for EA Director visit.

9 Fylde BeachCare March March 2018 Page 8 Communications highlights and key achievements 10 presentations given to community groups including National Citizen Service groups, MoD staff and 120 people at Blackpool Business Leaders Group. Organised first community dog walk event in Blackpool to launch new LOVEmyBEACH dog advice leaflet. We had over 40 people attend with their dogs to talk to LOVEmyBEACH and Dogs Trust and enjoy a walk on the beach. The success of this event has led to more planned for Increased profile on social media: 345 new followers on 442 new page likes on Facebook / lovemybeach_nw 178 new followers on Twitter highlight: This post about EA and UU joint beach clean had 24 retweets, 53 likes and 3 comments, reaching 18,783 people in total. Facebook highlight: From March 2018 this post about ReFILL had 247 likes, 72 shares and 63 comments, reaching 18,218 people.

10 March March 2018 Page 9 Communications highlights and key achievements ReFILL campaign launched with support of volunteers and the Blackpool Gazette. The Gazette featured a front page and double spread with several follow up photos of businesses who are supporting the scheme. There has been a very positive response to ReFILL on social media and direct engagement through approaching business networks and volunteers. As of end of March 2018 there were 22 business signed up offering free tap water refills. 17 pieces in newspaper press referencing LOVEmyBEACH covering stories such as the volunteer celebration event, beach clean relay and dog poo on St Annes Beach. Two TV interviews for Anchorsholme pipeline, supporting United Utilities in their press coverage for when the pipe arrived by talking about the positive impact of Fylde coast beaches. Six radio interviews: United Christian Broadcasters re: #binit4beaches 3 x BBC Radio Lancashire Radio Wave re: don t feed the birds Rock FM re: Christmas #binit4beaches Interview with Sky and their Ocean Rescue marine litter whale in Blackpool