Yorkshire Water is working with the Environment Agency to accelerate investment in coastal resorts, aiming to significantly reduce sewage spills and improve bathing water quality ahead of schedule.
Yorkshire Water has announced plans to accelerate investment in bathing waters across the Yorkshire Coast, with the aim of significantly reducing sewage spills ahead of national deadlines.
Miles Cameron, the manager of strategic partnerships at Yorkshire Water, acknowledged that more needs to be done to protect the region's coastline.
However, he confirmed that the company is actively working with the Environment Agency to secure cleaner bathing waters by at least 2035, with ambitions to bring this forward to 2030 for several key resorts.
Reflecting on the most recent water quality figures, Mr Cameron highlighted that the overall picture for the region has been positive, despite a slight decline in one specific area.
He explained that while two beaches saw improvements in their water quality ratings, the beach at Reighton experienced a drop from an excellent rating to a good rating.
The water company is now scrutinising the area and working with private entities, including a local holiday park, to identify and resolve any potential issues affecting Reighton Gill.
Mr Cameron said:
"Across the region, it was actually a good year. We did see two beaches improve. We just saw one drop. The one drop was at Reighton. And that went from excellent to good. There's no single reason, we're not aware of any particular asset deficiencies on a Yorkshire Water point of view, but we are absolutely scrutinising Reighton this year.
"We did an awful lot of work with Haven a few years ago with some misconnected drains with the Holiday Park there, with their Reg A standard national drainage manager to make sure they were held to account as well and that has improved dramatically. So we'll continue to work with private entities as well to make sure things are improving, and any inputs to Reighton Gill which can influence Reighton bathing water quality."
Looking ahead, Yorkshire Water is focusing its efforts on major coastal towns such as Scarborough and Bridlington.
New legislation dictates that by 2035, water companies should not have assets spilling more than twice during a bathing season, or fewer than ten times across an entire year.
While acknowledging that any number of spills may be viewed by the public as too many, Mr Cameron emphasised that the planned investments will lead to a significant reduction in both the frequency and volume of discharges.
By accelerating their investment programme, Yorkshire Water hopes to achieve these critical spill reduction targets by 2030, five years ahead of the statutory schedule.
Mr Cameron said:
"The exciting thing for Scarborough and some of our key coastal resorts is that we're looking to accelerate that investment for bathing waters. What that means is that by 2035 is the act says you should have nothing spilling more than twice in a bathing season or less than 10 times across a year.
"Again, you may argue well that's still 10 times too much, but in terms of the nature of the history of frequency and volume of spills, that will be significantly reduced. And the investment we're putting in Scarborough, Bridlington, and elsewhere means they want to achieve that earlier. We're trying to achieve some of these spill reduction targets by 2030. Again, you'll say well that's still too far off, but that is ahead of schedule."
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