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Filey beach loses Blue Flag
We have announced
today the disappointing news that Filey beach has not
maintained its Blue Flag status awarded earlier this year. The
timing of routine bathing water tests by the Environment Agency
suggest that the extreme rainfall the local area has experienced in
recent weeks has affected the results.
The news follows regular testing of the bathing water during the
last two months (between 10 May and 17 July inclusive), which
showed the stringent standard required to maintain a Blue Flag had
not been met on 3 out of 11 separate occasions. These results mean
that we have had to take down the Blue Flag and remove
any posters or information that relates to being a holder of the
Blue Flag award in 2012.
Despite these results, we are keen to assure the
public that the beach is still clean and safe to use and still
retains the Tidy Britain Quality Coast Award; it just hasn’t met,
on a regular enough basis, the very highest standard of bathing
water quality required to maintain Blue Flag status.
Brian Bennett, Head of Tourism and Culture explained:
"We recognise how important the prestigious Blue Flag award is
to Filey and we are very disappointed that the beach has not been
able to maintain it for the rest of 2012 especially as the news has
come so early in the summer season. However I would like to assure
members of the public that the bathing water does still meet the
European mandatory standard for bathing water quality and is
classified as a good standard of bathing water."
While we are confident that these recent results were
a direct result of the early summer heavy rainfall, we
are also keen to work with our partners to investigate other
potential influences on bathing water quality to ensure that the
new higher standards required under the Revised Bathing Water
Directive in the near future can be met.
As part of the Yorkshire Bathing Water Partnership we are
working with Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency in
conjunction with Filey Town Council and Filey Flood Working Group
to look at mitigating any effects that wrongly connected plumbing
from homes and businesses within the local area may have on bathing
water quality. The Environment Agency is also looking into the
effects of diffuse pollution sources like agricultural land run off
and contaminants from roads and paved areas.