Barking Dog Award
Watch Dog that Doesn’t Bark / Barks Madly
A Letter to Keep Britain Tidy –
Congratulations to Keep Britain Tidy on receiving the Barking Dog Award
2013. This is a new award and Keep Britian Tidy is the first recipient
for outstanding promotion of the worlds most radioactively contaminated
beaches as “Seaside Award” winning safe clean beaches.
One example is St Bees where 73 radioactive particles were found and
retrieved up to 2011. That number is increasing. The Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority have now scaled back the monitoring and
retrieval of radioactive particles despite the soaring numbers. The
Seaside Award should be revoked for all beaches in the vicinity of nuclear
plants (including Heysham/Morecambe) and most especially in the vicinity
of the worlds most dangerous reprocessing plant. Sellafield has in the
last few years stepped up its reprocessing activity and associated
discharges of radioactive waste into the Irish Sea. Monitoring and
retrieval of radioactive particles should be stepped up on all beaches in
the vicinity of Sellafield and reprocessing stopped immediately – when
reprocessing has ceased and an increased beach monitoring programme can
find no more radioactive particles on our beaches then perhaps children
can play safely. Until that time it is reckless beyond belief to be
promoting beaches in the vicinity of Sellafield as “safe and clean.”
At Seascale there is “zero tolerance” to dog poo but Pu and other
radioactive particles are scattered like a poisonous confetti cocktail on
the beach with every tide. Despite this the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority are scaling back monitoring and retrieval citing ‘funding’ as a
reason. This is madness and Keep Britain Tidy have massively contributed
to the madness by awarding Seascale a “Seaside Award” flag. Prior to
Sellafield, West Cumbrian beaches were full of tourists and locals as the
old photographs testify. Sellafield is the reason people quite rightly
are wary of the beaches and the Health Protection Agency advice assumes
that babies, toddlers and young children are not spending hours digging,
rolling around and ingesting/inhaling the sand.
Please, Please, Please reconsider your Seaside Award to West Cumbrian
beaches and instead urge increased monitoring and retrieval of radioactive
particles on the beaches around Sellafield.
