The Third Division side's pitch was last night unveiled in front of the national TV cameras as amongst the finalists for this year's Blue Flag awards. The Blue Flag awards are handed out yearly to beaches that meet a strict quality control criteria.
As usual Colchester is lagging behind it's more illustrious neighbour in the south of the county, as a number of Southend beaches have already been awarded this honour, including the Three Shells beach, East Beach and Shoebury Common Beach.
It is hoped that the awarding of the internationally recognised honour will boost tourism in the north of the county, which has yet again seen disappointingly few people turn up this year to the newly opened beach. Even the addition of perennial seaside favourites, the donkeys - Clive Platt and Kayode Odejayi foremost amongst them - have failed to boost visitor numbers, with attendances in North Essex remaining embarrassingly low.
The sight of a blue flag fluttering above the stands would provide a big boost for Colchester fans deprived of entertainment and who, because of manager Aidy Boothroyd's hoof-ball tactics, already spend an inordinate amount of time starting up in the air.
The move is however not without controversy, as debate has ensued over whether the Care in the Community pitch is a beach, or as some critics claim a ploughed field. Others have claimed that the presence of so much rubbish in Tesco's carrier bags on the Weston Care in the Community pitch also make it unworthy of such an award.
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I think the Blue Flag application will fail on several counts:
ReplyDeleteInformation relating to local eco-systems and environmental phenomena must be displayed - unfortunately since Cuckoo Farm closed down there is longer a local facility with the expertise and knowledge to describe the effects of incest on the critical faculties, so sufficient quality information is sadly unavailable.
No industrial or sewage related discharges may affect the beach area - there is still far too much effluent in the immediate area.
Sustainable means of transportation should be promoted in the beach area - Tractors do not count.
Dogs must be banned from the Blue Flag area of the beach and other domestic animals must be strictly controlled - the home crowd shots from the recent televised matches show that this clearly is not the case.