Aim for town's beaches to improve water quality

Yorkshire Water has pledged £150m to improve a coastal town's water quality status over the next four years after it was repeatedly classified as "poor".

Company representatives and water and flooding minister Emma Hardy visited Scarborough's South Bay earlier to announce works to reduce waste overflow.

Adam Ashman, head of partnerships and sustainability at Yorkshire Water, said the aim was to get both of the town's beaches upgraded to "excellent" bathing water status eventually.

"A huge amount of focus is needed to deliver the improvements that are required, and I see people working incredibly hard to deliver investment that will change the water quality in the town," he said.

"It's all with a drive to mean that when we do come to Scarborough, we can get in the sea and enjoy it."

South Bay visitors have been warned not to swim off the beach, though North Bay has a higher water quality rating of "adequate".

The poor classification was "disappointing", Ashman acknowledged, but said that recent projects at sites in Scarborough had already reduced the number of overflows.

This included the £2.8m work at Wheatcroft pumping station to install a new storage tank, which had a "demonstrable" impact on water quality.

"That's been a really successful scheme that's had a big impact on the number of overflows and that gives us confidence that the method that we're using works."

He acknowledged that overflow was still entering the water from other sites, but said that work to reduce this would be rolled out across Scarborough.

Labour MP Hardy said that while data indicated there was a decrease in the number of sewage overflows going out to sea, there was "more to do" to achieve a target of zero.

When asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service if regulation of the water industry had failed in past years, Hardy said: "Absolutely, when we came into government, it was quite clear that the regulation had failed.

"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."

She added that there was "some work" to do around agriculture and other sources of pollution, but that the investment would "hopefully give people more confidence to say things are moving in the right direction".

Yorkshire Water confirmed it would be working with other partners, including local farmers, to work on reducing other pollutants entering the sea.

The plans for Scarborough comes as part of a wider £8.3bn scheme by Yorkshire Water to improve services and upgrade infrastructure between 2025 and 2030.

A process of consultation with the local community would take place shortly, to minimise disruption during the works, Ashman added.

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

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