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CRAG Little Shore has been shortlisted for the Northumberland County Council LOVE Northumberland awards for achieving bathing water designation for Little Shore.

We have described in previous blogs the huge effort put in by our CRAG Little Shore volunteers to gather the support and the evidence necessary for the successful application. And we have described how so many of those that enjoy Little Shore came to celebrate at the Big Splash. Now, hopefully, the CRAG Little Shore volunteers will be honoured by the Northumberland County Council.

The LOVE Northumberland Awards are an annual celebration of community environmental work in the county. They allow the County Council to recognise the fantastic work of a great many groups and individuals who are doing their bit to make the county greener, cleaner, and more sustainable.

The awards, now in their 15th year, will be announced in a special event at the Alnwick Garden with the Duchess of Northumberland on Wednesday 24th June. Fingers crossed that the CRAG Little Shore volunteers come away with the top prize.

The Big Splash wasn’t the only event at the Puffin Festival (as I’m sure many of you already know), it was also where the latest of book of poems by friend of CRAG Ali Rowland was launched.

Ali writes, “At last, after some time assembling this, I’m able to announce the publication of ‘Coquet Tales: Stories of Amble and the surrounding area, Volume 1’ a collaboration with the award-winning photographer Jim Donnelly. This collection combines my poems and short prose with Jim’s stunning images to celebrate our area of coastal Northumberland in words and pictures.”

We have featured some of Ali’s poems on our website in the past (Creative responses to the Coquet, Coquet Notes and Meeting the boatman on the path). Ali gains great inspiration from the RIver Coquet, as we all do, and we wish her well with this latest publication.

After all the hard work, our volunteers were able to celebrate with many other people who like using Little Shore. The Big Splash event at Amble’s Puffin Festival was a perfect time to celebrate the achievement of bathing water designation for Little Shore.

CRAG joined with the Swimblers and Fenwick Ridley, Team GB open water and ice swimming competitor (aka the Ice Viking) at the Big Splash, to highlight the successful bathing water designation application and the benefit this will be for the town, it’s businesses and local residents.

The Ambler, Amble’s local community paper, is very supportive of Little Shore, featuring both the successful bathing water designation announcement and the Big Splash celebration.

Little Shore – we’ve done it. On 15 May 2026, Little Shore received bathing water designation from DEFRA (The Ambler: https://www.theambler.co.uk/2026/05/15/now-we-can-celebrate-ambles-little-shore-awarded-bathing-water-status/). This is thanks to all the hard work of the volunteers from the CRAG Little Shore group.

Bathing water designation means that the Environment Agency is legally required to monitor the quality of the water and to display signs indicating whether the water is suitable for bathing. Furthermore, if the water is found to be polluted, the Environment Agency is required to track down the source of that pollution and put in place measures to reduce pollution.

Our volunteers, alongside volunteers from Amble Swimblers (a wild swimming group) spent many hours and days informing and exciting the community about the benefits of bathing water designation. They received 20 letters of support from politicians, businesses, government agencies and other envronmental and community groups. Over 550 people responded to a public opinion survey, and over 300 people were recorded bathing in Little Shore over two afternoons. The hard work has paid off.

Designation for Little Shore is good for the rest of the Coquet. There will now be more visibility of sources of pollution throughout the catchment. Specifically, the extra monitoring will be good for the bird and other wildlife in the estuary, mudflats and saltmarshes next to Little Shore, including a population of rare dwarf eelgrass in the saltmarsh in Castle Dyke (behind the Warkworth dunes).

A celebration is planned. CRAG will have a stall to highlight this acheivement right through the Puffin Festival on 23rd and 24th of May, and at 11am on the 24th is the Big Splash. We are hoping that as many people as possible with swim of paddle on Little Shore to show support. Fenwick Ridley – the Ice Viking – will be presiding (https://www.theambler.co.uk/2026/05/08/the-big-splash-ambles-little-shore/). The team hopes to see you there.