Holiday park’s beach heroes praised by clean Dorset group

Project support officer Caroline Richards presents the litter-free award to proud members of the park team

Anti-litter warriors at a Dorset holiday park have been honoured with an award for helping to make the area’s beaches and sea even more welcoming to visitors.

The staff team at Highlands End Holiday Park in Bridport received the accolade from the Litter Free Coast and Sea Dorset campaign in recognition of their many anti-waste initiatives. It was presented after the park was audited by the organisation and received a thumbs-up for its success in minimising wastage, reducing litter, and stamping down on single-use plastics.

Congratulating the team this summer during a special visit was Caroline Richards, project support officer for the Litter Free Coast and Sea campaign.

Martin Cox, a member of the family which has owned Highlands End for almost 50 years, said that everyone was immensely proud to have received the honour:

“Minimising waste is an important part of our sustainability polices, and it’s not just about reducing the environmental footprint of our business, important though that is.

“It’s also about ensuring that our holiday guests can enjoy clean beaches on which to have fun and relax, and safe seas in which to swim or take part in water-sports.

“Our family and the vast majority of our staff were born and brought up in this area, so we naturally feel very strongly about safeguarding its fragile beauty and protecting the natural world.

“The Litter Free Coast and Sea campaign does a fantastic job of involving local people and businesses in its work, and we’re very proud to be giving them our full support,” said Martin.

He said that Highlands End and its four neighbouring sister parks were now close to achieving their target of recycling 50 percent of all waste materials produced. Not that the park is any stranger to environmental accolades for it is a long-time holder of the annual David Bellamy Conservation Award at its top gold level.

There was also praise this summer for another aspect of the business’s community involvement, this time from the Jurassic Coast Trust.

Martin’s parks group – West Dorset Leisure Holidays – raises substantial sums each year for the trust though a small optional levy on each booking, gladly accepted by most visitors. This June, it handed over a record sum of almost £8,200 collected over the previous 12 months – a whopping 20 percent of the total generated by the trust’s 60-plus business partners.

Sam Rose, the trust’s then chief executive designate, said the parks provided an amazing example to all local enterprises about helping to give back to “our very special environment”.

For more information about Highlands End and other parks in the group, visit www.wdlh.co.uk

Martin Cox (left) is thanked by Sam Rose for his group’s huge donation to the Jurassic Coast Trust