Special meeting about bathing water quality

The poor quality of bathing water in a seaside town is set to be discussed at a special meeting.

​A public meeting of the Scarborough and Whitby Area Committee of North Yorkshire Council has been provisionally set for March to discuss the findings of an investigation into the causes of water pollution.

The Environment Agency's (EA) updated ratings have classed Scarborough's South Bay bathing water quality as "poor" with swimming discouraged, and the North Bay's as "adequate".

Councillor Liz Colling, committee chair, indicated that data for both beaches would be dealt with in the meeting.

Representatives of the EA and Prof Darren Gröcke from Durham University, who has investigated the seaweed as an indicator of water quality, will also attend.

​"Councillors will ask questions, but, as always, members of the public are very welcome to ask a question at the beginning of the meeting," Colling said.

"Again, the papers will be published a week in advance, and there will be data from all the sampling that we saw people doing over the summer, the data from Prof Darren Gröcke and Yorkshire Water's latest information."

​For almost two years, Gröcke has been leading a comprehensive study of seaweed along the coast from Filey to Hayburn Wyke, on behalf of North Yorkshire Council.

According to Durham University, through nitrogen isotope analysis of more than 3,000 samples, his findings show values linked to animal manure and human sewage as the dominant contributor to nitrogen pollution.

​​The study also indicates Scalby Beck as a source of nitrogen pollution that is carried south by marine currents towards Scarborough South Bay, a popular visitor and leisure area.

​The meeting was announced last year and the date was made public at a full meeting of Scarborough Town Council on 21 January.

It is currently scheduled to go ahead on 23 March, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Colling added that due to the participation of many groups and organisations, the date was not finalised "but hopefully we will have everything together in one place for the public to be able to be on that date".

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