Water Minister Says ‘Come And Enjoy Seaside’ In Scarborough Despite Water Quality Concerns

There is ‘more to do’ to improve water quality in a much-loved North Yorkshire resort, according to a Government minister.

Emma Hardy, the Minister for Water and Flooding, was on a visit to Scarborough on Thursday (March 12).

She said:

“Fundamentally, what people want to know when they come to Scarborough is, is it safe for me to go and swim in the sea? They don’t really care where the pollution is coming from, they just want it to stop,”

“There’s some work to do around agriculture, there’s some work to do around other sources of pollution, but hopefully that will give people more confidence to say things are moving in the right direction and encourage people to come here.

“It’s lovely, come and have a paddle, check Swimfo if you’re worried about pollution incidents, but come and enjoy the seaside.”

The MP said: “we’re on the right track to improve” water quality and that people should confidently “come and visit the seaside”.

The visit was part of a National Water Tour “to look at where customer bill money has been spent on improving water and reducing pollution right around the country”.

Speaking at Scarborough’s Marine Drive wildlife viewing station, Ms Hardy said:

“Right here in beautiful Scarborough, we’re looking at how the money has been invested to improve the bathing water quality, particularly for the South Bay, because we know how much people love coming to the seaside, they love going swimming, and we want people to be able to enjoy that safely.

“I’ve been to visit some of the assets that have been upgraded, talking to Yorkshire Water about their improvement plans, so that we can see a constant improvement and reduction in the number of pollution incidents, so more people can enjoy the beach safely.”

Issues with Scarborough’s bathing water quality have continued to persist and last year’s ratings saw the South Bay still classed as ‘poor’ and the North Bay’s bathing water quality classed as ‘sufficient’.

Yorkshire Water has said it is set to deliver its largest ever environmental investment between 2025 and 2030, with £8.3bn to be spent across the region to improve services and upgrade infrastructure.

The company spent £2.85 million upgrading the Wheatcroft combined sewer outfall, which discharges a mix of rainwater and sewage into the bay during heavy rain.

Ms Hardy said:

“One of the projects I’ve seen is is a £3 million investment in a storm tank and one of the things that they’re doing is collecting some of the storm overflow that would have been discharged to sea, holding it in tanks, waiting for drier days to come, where it can then enter the system and be treated safely.”

Asked if regulation of the water industry had failed in past years, she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS):

"Absolutely, when we came into government, it was quite clear that the regulation had failed.”

With the summer season approaching, businesses in Scarborough have raised concerns about the economic impact of poor bathing water quality on tourism.

An extraordinary meeting of the Scarborough and Whitby Area Committee will take place later this month to discuss water quality in the town.

Alison Hume, MP for Scarborough and Whitby, said:

“The water quality ratings will be reviewed in November this year and of course, that will impact the summer season.

“I know that due to the investment that McCain’s have made in their sewage plant of around £23 million, the investment in the overflow that Yorkshire Water has made, the water quality is actually improving.

“But the official designation doesn’t come until November, and I’m going to be asking the government whether there’s any way that we can reassure visitors and residents and people going into the water, that it is actually cleaner than the poor classification suggests it is.”

Adam Ashman, head of strategic planning at Yorkshire Water, said he understood the concern of residents who have said that not enough is being done fast enough to address the poor water quality.

Mr Ashman said:

“A huge amount of focus is needed to deliver the improvements that are required, and from where I sit, I see people working incredibly hard to deliver a huge amount of investment that will change the water quality in the town”.

“We’ve got a big investment focused on Yorkshire Water’s assets in Scarborough and that means principally reducing the number of times that storm overflows operate, and by 2030 we will have delivered a scheme to reduce the number of operations of overflows down to no more than two per bathing season.”