South Bay rated poor for water standard again

ONE OF the best-known beaches in Yorkshire has failed to meet minimum standards for water quality for the second year running.

Scarborough South Bay, which was also rated “poor” last year, was named as one of seven to have failed to make the grade nationally, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Inquiries into the ongoing issues have revealed bacterial pollution from a number of sources including humans, seabirds and dogs. Bacteria from industrial effluent may also have an “occasional impact”, according to Yorkshire Bathing Water Partnership (YBWP), which commissioned a cutting-edge DNA profiling study.

Scarborough Borough Council is investing £180,000 in new toilet facilities at Vincent Pier, which will include toilet waste disposal for visiting mariners. YBWP said no single factor was responsible for lowering water quality and they were “fully committed to ensuring that the bathing water quality at Scarborough South Bay improves significantly into the future”.

The latest figures from Defra show six beaches in Yorkshire are rated as “excellent,” down from 11 last year, which the partnership blamed on an unusually wet summer. The six “excellent” beaches are Cayton Bay, Danes Dyke, Robin Hoods Bay, Runswick Bay, Tunstall and Whitby. Flamborough South, Hornsea, Withernsea, Scarborough North and Sandsend have been downgraded from excellent to good. Reighton has improved from “sufficient” to “good”.

The six others classed as failing in the UK are Clacton (Groyne 41), Essex; Instow, Wildersmouth and Combe Martin in Devon, and Burnham Jetty North and Weston-super-Mare Uphill Slipway in Somerset.

But conditions have improved since 2015, when the new system of classification under tougher EU rules came in.

That year, 12 beaches were classed as failing and the number rated excellent was 264 (63.5 per cent). Readings taken over the last four bathing seasons are used to determine the annual grade for the bathing spot, with this year’s results reflecting how clean the water has been from 2014 to 2017.