One in three UK beaches 'unsafe'
Friday, 14 November 2008 12:01 AM
One in three of Britain's beaches were too dangerous to use this summer because of water pollution, the government had admitted.
Monitoring data from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reveals 35 per cent of Britain's 207 beaches failed to meet European guidelines for water quality this summer.
Exceptionally wet weather in June, July and August is being blamed for the failure and the Marine Conservation Society is calling for renewed investment in sewer overflow networks.
These discharge a mixture of raw sewage and storm water whenever the sewers flood, prompting calls from MCS coastal pollution officer Thomas Bell to suggest "significant new investment" to reduce its pollution impact.
"These latest results reflect a worrying trend toward worsening pollution on Britain's beaches," he said.
"There was a high point in 2006 when 76 per cent of beaches had good water quality, but long bouts of heavy rain last summer swept pollutants like farm fertiliser, street debris and animal waste directly from the land into rivers and the sea."
Swimmers are left facing uncertainty as to which beaches are safe to bathe in and which are not.
"The problem for swimmers is knowing which beaches have suffered and when," Mr Bell added.
Newsletter sign up