My Coast A beach safety app for the summer

A new app for coastal users

If you’re heading to the coast this summer, you might be wishing there was one handy home for tide times, parking information, live water and beach conditions and more. Mother-of-three Jo Murray certainly felt that way, so she created one.

Launched officially at the end of July, the My Coast app has been designed to help users make the best of visiting the coast while staying safe, and has been praised and supported by a host of key partners including the RNLI, MET Office, South West Water and the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter.

Jo, a chartered accountant from Ladock near Truro, came up with the concept after a string of ill-fated beach trips during the first Coronavirus lockdown. “Every time I wanted to take the family to explore beaches around Cornwall, it ended in disaster: the tide was in, the beach wasn’t dog-friendly, the facilities we wanted weren’t available,” she explains.

“My Coast was born with the aim of taking the luck out of enjoying a safe and amazing day on the coast, and to lessen the chances of failing miserably, as I had.”

The app is now active on three trial beaches: Gyllyngvase in Falmouth, Porthtowan and Perranporth. It is free to download and use, giving coastal and beach users live safety information – including tide times, lifeguard presence, wave height and wind speed - and other useful, verified data to ensure they find a beach to suit their specific needs.

Users are asked two key questions: do you need disabled access and are you taking children? They can choose the elements that matter most to them, such as public toilets, defibrillators or decent coffee.

“Users can find out how busy an area is in real-time, so it will be easy to avoid crowds,” adds Jo. “It will also capture crucial data relating to visitor flows in popular coastal hotspots, useful for future planning considerations – and could even drive socioeconomic and environmental policies.”

In a bid to avoid parking stress and encourage sustainability, My Coast will link with public transport timetables, data on EV charging points, bicycle parking and walking and cycling routes.

A key aim of the app is to help to reduce the number of avoidable deaths and accidents on our coastline. There were 277 accidental drownings around the UK’s coast in 2021; and in the five-year period from 2014 and 2019, there were 177 drownings along the Cornish coast. Not only was this a tragic loss of life, but it also came at a cost of £354m to the UK taxpayer.

My Coast will deliver live safety information, emergency service push notifications and an emergency help button should a user into difficulty. Brendan Prince founded the charity Above Water in 2014, after witnessing three drownings in Mawgan Porth in 2014. “In a world where apps dictate our lives, MyCoast is such an obvious, essential app - you can’t believe it’s not already out there!” he said. “I hope it will become the go-to for any family planning a Cornish coastal visit.”

The app has garnered praise from high places. Malcolm Bell, head of Visit Cornwall, describes Jo as “a force of nature – for good”, adding: “The beauty of this app is that it takes all the information and puts it in the palm of your hand.” RNLI spokesman Steve Instance adds: “We want people to be safe and come back to their loved ones. With this app, they can get the key information they need to decide where to go, what to do and when.”

Jo’s ambition is to take it not just Duchywide, but national and even global. “My Coast will be an invaluable tool for so many reasons in Cornwall but also nationally, given that we have 11,000 miles of coastline,” she explains. “To make this happen, I need the support from individuals and businesses who can see the immense value of the app.” l

To find out more and support the Crowdfunder campaign visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/my-coast-app or email jo@my-coast.com.