Nov. 28, 2000 (The Northern Echo)—Nine out of the ten holiday beaches on the North Yorkshire coast have been given the thumbs up under the European Union sea bathing regulations.
The one to fail, at the fishing village of Staithes, is blamed on pollution going into the village beck which flows into the sea.
Roy Ayrton, Scarborough Borough Council's director of environmental health, said: "The bathing water results at Staithes have regularly been unsatisfactory. A further failure this year, while regrettable, is no surprise.
It is clear that failures of the EU bathing water quality directive standards have a relationship with the pollution which enters Staithes beck as well as the unsatisfactory outfall."
However the problem is due to be improved with the completition shortly of Yorkshire Water's waste water treatment scheme at the fishing village said Mr Ayrton.
"The Environment Agency is making efforts to improve the quality of Staithes Beck, but this is very problematic due to its lengthy course through farmland, from which it drains surface water."
Multi-million pound sewage schemes by Yorkshire Water at Scarborough, Filey, Whitby, and Robin Hood's Bay, will further improve the micro-biological quality of effluents discharged into the sea, he said.
The beach at Reighton, near Filey, has been designated as "excellent" following this year's sea water tests, while those at Filey, Cayton Bay, Scarborough North and South Bays, Robin Hood's Bay, Whitby, Sandsend and Runswick Bay, have been labelled "good".
Twenty samples were taken from each place. "In order to pass the bathing water standard overall, 19 of the 20 samples from any beach must achieve the required quality parameters" said Mr Ayrton.
The council's environmental health and control committteee is recommended to call for action to improve the quality of the sea and the water in Staithes Beck as a priority.
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