The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Courier Country beaches show improvements
Monifieth and Kinghorn Harbour beaches unable to shake off ‘poor’ rating
Beaches across Tayside and Fife are on track to improve their bathing water quality standards by 2017.
Montrose, Anstruther and Elie (harbour) beaches are expected to go from a “good” to an “excellent” Sepa (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) rating next spring.
The East Sands in St Andrews will move from “sufficient” to “excellent” and Leven beach is on track to go from “sufficient” to “good”.
Broughty Ferry beach will retain its “excellent” score if no drastic changes take place.
But it’s not all good news, with Monifieth and Kinghorn’s harbour beaches unable to shake off their “poor” ratings.
The ratings system drew criticism from Monifieth’s Eco Force group, which organises regular beach cleans.
Chairman Alex Graham said: “We have been trying to keep the beach clean.
“The council have changed the course of the stream that used to come out on to Monifieth beach. I think that the measuring system is unfair, it has been more stringent than before.”
John Wincott, Fife Council’s spokesman for environment and transportation, said there is ongoing work to improve the water quality at Kinghorn harbour.
He added: “It’s really good news that Fife has once again improved the scores for almost all our beaches, and that most of them are either good or excellent.
“Given that the judging criteria has become even tighter recently, this is a particularly rewarding achievement for everyone involved.
“The situation at Kinghorn harbour is that Kinghorn burn, which feeds into the area, has had some pollution in the past, and that there has also been some run-off from local agricultural land.”
Sepa expects that 72 of the 84 designated bathing waters across Scotland will meet the European water quality standards when confirmed classifications are issued by the EU in spring 2017.