YORKSHIRE’S beaches have been officially recognised as some of the best in the world – just days after Yorkshire Water was fined over a sewage pollution incident at Runswick Bay.
Anti-litter charity Keep Britain Tidy today announced that Yorkshire has 17 award-winning beaches this year, including five awarded the prestigious Blue Flag because they have the highest standards of water quality, cleanliness, safety and environmental management.
Hornsea and Withernsea have regained their Blue Flags from two years ago, whilst Scarborough North, Whitby and Filey have retained Blue Flag status, with Bridlington North just missing out on the award by the smallest of margins.
Fifteen beaches have received Quality Coast Awards (QCAs) for high standards of beach management, including Bridlington North and South, Robin Hoods Bay, Sandsend and Runswick Bay, giving Yorkshire a higher concentration of QCAs than any other region in the UK.
Yorkshire Water was fined £7,500 last week after a fault at a pumping station allowed sewage to be released into a beck at Runswick Bay, but it said then it had immediately made a significant investment in the station to prevent it happening again.
A national newspaper warned on Sunday that tough new water quality standards coming into force in 2015 could lead to swimming being banned at Staithes, Robin Hood’s Bay and Bridlington South.
Lee Pitcher, bathing water strategy manager at Yorkshire Water said the new stricter standards meant it would be harder than ever to achieve Blue Flag status and clearly if nothing was done, bathing water standards certainly would not improve.
"However, the good news is we're not allowing this to happen, with us creating a multi-agency partnership last year which is committed to doing everything possible so that, come 2015, our beaches and bathing waters aren't just passing the new standards, but as many as possible are achieving the new excellent status which would see Blue Flags flying at each of the region's eight coastal resorts.”
He said the partnership consisted of Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency, Welcome To Yorkshire, Scarborough Borough Council, the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, North Yorkshire County Council, the Rural Affairs Forum and Defra.
A shore thing
NORTH Yorkshire has some of the finest coastline in Britain, with long stretches of beach favoured by families across the country.
Once again, five have been awarded a Blue Flag for cleanliness, while a further 12 were commended for their beach management. What welcome news. The holiday season is upon us and seaside towns will be competing for the holiday pound more than ever.
But we do question the need for all these different awards, especially when the EU is poised to introduce yet more stringent guidelines in the upcoming Bathing Water Directive. Why can’t there be more harmonisation? It is very confusing to discover a beach has passed a survey with flying colours one week and failed to reach high tide the next.
Surely it would be simpler for one agency or organisation to tell us whether a beach is fit for purpose.
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