Record rain blamed as popular beach is stripped of Blue Flag

Officials have been told to take the flag down from the five-mile stretch at Filey, after it failed water quality tests on several occasions.

Beaches are tested each week and only lose their flag if they breach limits for E coli – which can cause stomach upsets and sickness – four times in a season, or three times for another bacteria, intestinal enterococci.

The record rainfall is thought to have been responsible for contaminating beaches, as it causes sewer overflow pipes to discharge untreated dilute sewage into the marine environment, along with agricultural run-off.

Seaton Carew in Teeside and Roker in Tyne and Wear have also lost Blue Flags.

Filey failed an E coli test on June 7, and on the same occasion breached the limit for intestinal enterococci. Levels of intestinal enterocci were also too high on May 10 and July 3.

Another Yorkshire beach, Bridlington North, recorded 10,000 colonies of E coli per 100ml of seawater on June 21, 40 times higher than the Blue Flag limit.

However, as the samples only provide a “snapshot” of the water quality on the day they are taken, the Environment Agency says visitors can bathe with confidence at both resorts.

Scarborough Borough councillor Mike Cockerill, whose portfolio includes responsibility for coastal issues, and has lived in Filey all his life, said: “Obviously it is very disappointing. It is very unfortunate.

“It is because of the way the system works. The water sampling is a snapshot and what we have been told by Yorkshire Water is some of these samples have been taken shortly after we have a lot of rain and things have washed down into the sea.

“We have been told to pull the Blue Flag down and remove any advertising or signs which say Blue Flag 2012.

“I am sure some people who look purely at beaches and check whether they have a Blue Flag will more than likely be put off but I do believe the vast majority will come to Filey and enjoy the wonderful beaches and the sea.”

A spokesman from the Environment Agency said: “We saw record amounts of rainfall in April, May and June which affected bathing water quality at Filey and Bridlington.

“New sewerage schemes are planned in both areas by 2014, which should lead to excellent bathing water in the future.

“It is important to note that what happened with bathing water quality over the last three months does not impact on bathing water today.

“Bacteria live for three days, so people should be able to enjoy the good weather in confidence of good bathing water quality in Bridlington and Filey.”

The Yorkshire Post has already revealed that only two of the region’s seven Blue Flag beaches, Scarborough North Bay and Whitby, look set to keep their Blue Flags when tough international rules are introduced next year.

The UK is among the last countries in Europe to adopt new standards for Blue Flag set by the Copenhagen-based European Group Foundation for Environmental Education. Five beaches, Filey, Bridlington North and South beaches, Hornsea and Withernsea could be without their flags for three years, as the new “excellent” standard, which is roughly twice as stringent as the current standard, will be based on this year’s data and the last three year’s data.

Keep Britain Tidy, the government-funded charity which administers the Blue Flag scheme in the UK, estimates 20 to 30 per cent of beaches in the UK could be stripped of the flag. That could rise because of this summer’s poor results.

A spokeswoman for Keep Britain Tidy said the recent failures were not surprising: “It is all the rain which is impacting on water quality. When it rains a lot you get a lot of rain off agricultural land with all the nutrients going into the sea, and also combined sewer overflows have to be opened because they are filling to the point where they will flood. These two things are impacting on water quality.”