It's a shame that it takes a visitor to highlight the poor state of one of Bermuda's best-known beaches - Shelly Bay - and to feel the need to offer to pay for it to be cleaned up.

Having said that, Bruce M. Brown, the founding trustee if the Pennsylvania-based HBE Foundation deserves Bermuda's thanks for making the offer of paying any Bermuda charity to clean up the popular beach.

There was a caveat - the public restrooms at the beach house need to be restored to working order as soon as possible before the offer kicks in.

The Royal Gazette reported that the bathrooms were in a poor state following some plumbing problems which are now being fixed, and that's a fair explanation for the problems.

And the Parks Department has stated that it does clean up the beach, along with the Marine Clean-Up organised by Keep Bermuda Beautiful also works on Shelly Bay.

That's fine as far as it goes, but the evidence that our reporter found at the beach suggested that it does not go far enough.

It would be better if a Boy Scout troop or a similar organisation offered to clean up the beach for free as a community service. But Bermuda should be responsible for cleaning up its own mess and should not have to be paid for it by a visitor.

If Mr. Brown then wanted to make a contribution to the organisation that does the clean-up, that would be fine.

But we should do our best to keep Bermuda beautiful ourselves.

@EDITRULE:

The Parks Department and Government deserve credit for the opening of the new Railway Trail walkways in Shelly Bay.

The Trail is one of the less-heralded jewels in Bermuda's tourism crown, and that is too bad, because it is a wonderful attraction for residents and visitors alike who want to do something more than lie on the beach or play golf.

Its solitude and, in places, great natural beauty make it one of the features that any kind of eco-tourism promotion must take advantage of. And for residents, it is one of the few places where you can get away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the Island.

It is not perfect however. There are areas where you are forced to walk along roads, dodging traffic before getting back on the trail and others where you have to leave the trail and go around where the told bridges are lno longer usable. The Shelly Bay stretch has long been one of those areas, because the old railway used to run over water for part of the way.

Now this is no longer a problem, and the attractive walkways that have been placed with great sensitivity along the shoreline will make for a safer and spectacular walk which will make the trail more attractive to residents and visitors alike. The Environment Ministry and the staff of the Parks Department deserve credit for this improvement.