Celebrating our My Beach, Your Beach campaign

ver the past five years the My Beach, Your Beach campaign, funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by us in collaboration with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), has worked to support bathing water quality improvements and promote beach stewardship at seven Scottish beaches.

Launched in 2018 the campaign grew, year on year, expanding from three to seven beaches on the east and west of Scotland.  Structured around three strands: communication, community engagement and business engagement, the campaign aimed to raise awareness and change behaviour in relation to dog-fouling, litter and feeding of gulls.

Key outcomes of the campaign highlighted in the report include summer litter counts reducing at the three original beaches, 81% of people noticing the campaign, and 70% of swimmers checking bathing water quality.   The campaign also revealed that 93% already take action to protect the beach or would be willing to do so in the future.

The campaign has shown it is essential to effectively engage all stakeholders, including local communities, businesses and beach managers to encourage local action to protect the sand and the sea.  Overall, the four main objective of the campaign were met, and we:

• Encouraged behaviour change in relation to littering to remove this source of food for gulls.
• Encouraged residents and visitors to bag and bin dog waste.
• Created more community ownership of the quality of local bathing waters.
• Created a campaign that can be replicated in other bathing water locations.

Emma Glencross, our Campaigns Officer, said: “The My Beach, Your Beach campaign has been a fantastic success. Over the past five years we have seen a brilliant response to our efforts to ensure beach visitors know their small actions can make a big difference.

“While the campaign has now ended, its legacy will be vital in highlighting the role communities play in protecting our sand and sea.

“I’d like to thank all of the individuals, communities and partners we’ve worked with over the past five years who have helped us make this campaign such a success.”

Read the full five year report or check out the legacy video.

The issues our beaches face unfortunately remain but we will take learning from this campaign and continue to encourage beach stewardship and work with beach managers to share the messages.