Beaches on right track to be even better next year

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 t o go from a “good” to an “excellent” Sepa (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) rating next spring.

The East Sands i n 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 K i n g h o r n ’s harbour beaches unable to improve 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 has changed the course of the stream that used to come out on to Monifieth beach. I think the measuring system is unfair — it has been more stringent than before.”

John Wincott, Fife Council’s spokesman for environment and transportation, said: “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.”

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.