HC Deb 04 February 1987 vol 109 c717W
12. Mr. Sedgemore

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will make a statement on the quality of bathing water at the beaches in the United Kingdom, in regard to the European Economic Community regulations related to coastal bathing water.

Mr. Waldegrave

Following the answers which my hon. Friend the Minister with responsibility for local government and the environment in Scotland and I gave yesterday, we are now under a formal obligation to ensure that a much larger number, namely 389, of our bathing waters meet the directive's quality standards. We have been surveying the great majority of these in the last year and first indications are that more than half of them already comply with the standards set in the EEC "bathing water" directive.

37. Sir Peter Blaker

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement about measures taken to ensure that the waters around Britain's coast meet the European Community's standards of cleanliness.

Mr. Waldegrave

Some £70 million is being spent annually on schemes related to the improvement of bathing water quality in the United Kingdom. Of the waters included in the survey I announced in my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, North-West (Dr. Hampson) on 18 December 1985, more than half already meet the standards set out in the EEC "bathing water" directive. We expect the spending programme to lead to a steady improvement in the quality of our coastal bathing waters. One of the major schemes is at Blackpool, where the intention is to bring the waters up to the directive's standards. Details of the scheme are being finalised. It will involve substantial re-sewering and probably the disposal of sewage a long way out to sea. In total, it is estimated that some £35 million will be spent and that the scheme will be fully operational by 1993.

On 3 February I announced in reply to a question from my hon. Friend that 366 bathing waters in England and Wales and Northern Ireland were acknowledged to be within the scope of the EEC "bathing water" directive (76/160/EEC) including four at Blackpool. On the same day my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, with responsibility for local government and the environment, in a reply to a question from my Friend the Member for Cunninghame, North (Mr. Corrie) announced that 23 waters in Scotland were acknowledged to be within the scope of the directive. We are under an obligation to see that all these waters meet the directive's standards.