RAISING AWARENESS OF BEACH SAFETY AT DONNA NOOK

Around 80 children from three local primary schools visited the Air Weapons Range at Donna Nook recently for the annual School Beach Awareness Day. The event – which is organised by the Coastguard and supported by Landmarc Support Services, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust – aims to inform children about basic beach safety skills.

Beach Awareness Day at Donna Nook

The team coordinated a range of different safety briefs, including sessions on the Main Control Tower, bombs and bullets and Coastguard, to teach them the basic principles of staying safe in coastal areas.
Donna Nook is both an area of scientific interest and a National Nature Reserve overseen by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. Senior Warden Rob Lidstone-Scott and Warden Lizzie Lemon also attended the event and discussed the dangers of pollution and waste and the impacts they can have on local wildlife, including the site’s famous resident grey seals.
Craig Godfrey, Site Manager at Landmarc commented: “This awareness day is an important community event here at Donna Nook. The lessons learnt are often passed back to friends, siblings and even parents when they come down to the range, with the children passing on the message not to touch items found on the beach.”
Event organiser, Chris Ashmore from the local Coastguard added: “We get a lot of local children using the beach here so we’re committed to ensuring that they know how to play safe in what can sometimes be a dangerous environment. The children always have a great time during their visit and we receive excellent feedback from both pupils and teachers.”
For safety reasons, the public are excluded from the area when live firing is taking place, so it’s important that the local range opening times are checked and warning signals heeded. When live firing is taking place a red flag is flown by day and a red light is lit by night  – when you see these you should avoid the area.