Bathing Water Quality (Hansard, 4 December 1997)

§ Mr. Meacher

The quality of UK bathing waters fell slightly this year, with 88 per cent. of identified waters meeting EC mandatory coliform bacteria standards. This290W compares with 90 per cent. of UK bathing waters meeting the standards in 1996. The proportion of bathing waters complying with the standards in England and Wales remained the same at 89 per cent.

The UK results are around the average for the EU but I want us to be among the leaders. We will only get there by urgent and targeted action on the small proportion of bathing waters which fail persistently. No Member State achieves 100 per cent. compliance consistently but I shall not be satisfied until we are achieving close to 100 per cent. regularly. There is still some way to go.

It is very disappointing that compliance with the Directive is not better than last year, as more improvement schemes have come on stream.

The results in the North-West are especially poor, with only half the bathing waters there passing the mandatory bacteria standards, compared with 61 per cent. last year. This is particularly disappointing when major bathing water improvement schemes have been completed in the area. I am asking North West Water to work with the Environment Agency as a matter of urgency to help to sort out the remaining problems, particularly in the Blackpool, Fylde coast area.

I am also writing to the Chairman of the Environment Agency for a detailed report on the prospects for compliance and the action needed on persistent failures. I know that only last month the Agency warned water companies that delays in programming major investments were putting Britain at risk of failing to meet EC deadlines for improved sewage treatment under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. In addition to speeding up work to implement the UWWTD, I want to see concerted action by the Agency and the water companies to identify the causes of failure of bathing waters under the Bathing Water Directive, and give priority to tackling them in order to raise the level of compliance. However there is also good news in the results I am announcing today. I am encouraged to see that 180 UK bathing waters reached the higher guideline standard this year which is needed for a "Blue Flag" and I hope more local authorities than have done so in the past will be encouraged to apply for this prestigious award.

Furthermore, 397 is a record number of bathing waters meeting the required standard and nearly two-thirds of the 50 failures in England and Wales missed compliance by only one of the 20 samples. Some regions performed particularly well this year and Anglian region deserve to be congratulated for achieving 100 per cent. compliance.

The main results for the United Kingdom are summarised below. This information, together with details of English and Welsh bathing waters, will be placed in the Libraries of the House today. This will be supplemented by a report with more detailed results in due course.

England and Wales Environment Agency—Operational regions	Pass	Fail	Total
Northumbrian¹	32(29)	2(5)	34(34)
Yorkshire¹	19(20)	3(2)	22(22)
Anglian	35(34)	0(1)	35(35)
Thames	3(2)	0(1)	3(3)

291W

England and Wales Environment Agency—Operational regions	Pass	Fail	Total
Southern	67(62)	8(7)	75(69)
Wessex¹	39(41)	4(1)	43(42)
South West¹	125(126)	12(12)	²137(138)
North West	17(20)	17(13)	34(33)
Welsh	60(52)	4(5)	64(57)
Total	397(386)	50(47)	447(433)
Scotland	18(21)	5(2)	23(23)
Northern Ireland	14(16)	2(0)	16(16)
Grand Total	429(423)	57(49)	486(472)
Results for 1996 are in brackets.
¹ Northumbrian and Yorkshire, South West and Wessex Regions were amalgamated in 1993, results are recorded separately here to enable comparison to be made with earlier years.
² South West has one less bathing water this year due to engineering works on the cliffs at Beacon Cove between May and August, making sampling impossible. Beacon Cover is, therefore, not included in compliance assessment for 1997.