ENVIRONMENTAL
Saundersfoot New Year’s Day Swim Ltd aims to be an environmentally responsible organisation. To this end, we ensure that the beach is in pristine condition prior to the Swim. We have a beach cleaning team on duty, ‘in situ’, at day break on New Year’s Day, collecting the debris that is on the beach and surrounding area, particularly spent fireworks after the Fireworks Display on New Year’s Eve. The beach and surrounding area is also cleared post Swim. The Saundersfoot Harbour Commissioners provide extra bins for the day and Pembrokeshire County Council arrange a special collection to empty the bins.
Our medals used to come, individually packed in plastic, and many of these found their way onto the beach and had to be picked up. We now have the medals delivered in bags of 50, which has addressed the litter problem previously caused.
Most swimmers wear fancy dress and experience tells us that parts of their costume are often left in the sea or on the beach. The lifeguards on the water are tasked with collecting any debris and the stewards clean the beach and surrounding area post Swim.
This year’s event was sponsored by Actimel, who handed out thousands of samples. They had a team that collected the empties and also had sufficient large bins to collect them.
Pembrokeshire County Council advised us to produce a Health & Safety flyer giving advice to both swimmers and spectators. 2000 were handed out and, following the Swim, none of the flyers were picked up as litter.
We are, as an organisation, totally committed to reduce our carbon and environmental footprint. To support this we have made sponsor forms available on line. We are also committed to purchasing goods locally and make limited use of vehicles.
LANGUAGE
Saundersfoot New Year’s Day Swim Ltd has adopted the principle that it will treat the English and Welsh languages on the basis of equality. We wish to encourage people who have dealings with our organisation to feel comfortable using their preferred language. Two of our five directors are fluent Welsh speakers and can converse in the Welsh language. We will provide literature bilingually whenever it is practical and appropriate. We will aim to ensure that spending and using resources on a Welsh language service is normal practice wherever that is suitable, reasonable and practical.
Learning from experience will be a feature of the scheme, and we will endeavour to ensure continuous progress to offer the best possible service to those requiring their preferred language.
Planning - Any new initiative or policy will promote and facilitate the use of Welsh wherever possible, to take the organisation closer to putting into effect the principle of equality at all times.
Should there be a demand for signage and literature in the Welsh language we are committed to funding translation services of a high standard to ensure that all relevant material is translated quickly and reliably.
Communicating with the Welsh speaking public - Our organisation welcomes written correspondence in Welsh and English. All letters received in Welsh will be answered in Welsh. We will also endeavour to ensure that all correspondence in Welsh receives attention within the same timescale as correspondence in English. Please see attached letter, in Welsh, thanking Welsh international, Jonathan Davies, for starting the Swim.
People are welcome to speak English or Welsh when dealing with our organisation over the phone. If a Welsh speaking director is not available, the caller may choose to have a Welsh speaker phone them back or continue the conversation in English.
Our organisation will ensure that those who wish to have face to face contact with a Welsh speaking director will be able to do so.
INCLUSION
Equality, diversity and inclusion are central to everything we do in relation to the Swim. We are all different. We come from different backgrounds, have different family structures and relationships, come from different geographical places, have different faith and belief systems as well as different abilities, age and gender. Diversity is about positively valuing these differences. Inclusion refers to a person’s experience and the extent to which they feel valued and included.
Saundersfoot New Year’s Day Swim Ltd will do everything we can to ensure that we’re as inclusive as possible in all areas of our work, whether in relation to the personnel who organise the Swim or the participants who enter the sea.
We believe that an inclusive society, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, will also help to develop social cohesion.
Taking wheelchairs on to beach is not advisable, especially on soft sand. We, therefore, provided a special wheelchair, with larger wheels, that is suitable for the beach. In the 2019 Swim no one asked for such a wheelchair. We have allocated a space on the harbour wall for a limited amount of wheelchairs.
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