I am delighted that a campaign that I have been running with Scarborough Councillor, Mike Cockerill, has been successful giving Filey a much better chance to qualify for a Blue Flag.
The Environment Agency (EA) has confirmed that the Pollution Risk Forecasting (PRF) system will be applied to the 2019 Filey bathing water season. This means that Filey can now potentially have certain bathing water samples discounted at the end of the season if warning signs have been put up to alert the public to a possible reduction in bathing water quality due to heavy rainfall.
Excellent water quality is a key factor in being eligible to apply for the prestigious Blue Flag. Filey, where the water quality is normally of a high standard, has occasionally fallen short when high volumes of rainfall has overflowed out of the normal drainage system and entered the sea without being treated.
Until now Filey was not included in the model which would have shown a strong relationship between rainfall and poor water quality. This announcement brings Filey in line with other Yorkshire resorts, including the South Bay at Scarborough.
This is great news. Filey has been unfairly impacted by its inability to qualify for the Blue Flag because it has been difficult to prove that its water quality, as set out in the Bathing Water Directive, is consistently excellent. I am now confident that Filey is much more likely to be awarded the Blue Flag which acts as a guarantee to tourists that a beach or marina that they are visiting is clean and maintained to the highest standards.
Speaking after the news Councillor Cockerill said “As seen from the routine sampling results, Filey normally has excellent Bathing Water Quality. However, sometimes the result of an individual sample shows higher levels of pollution than the prescribed levels to achieve an excellent classification to win a coveted Blue Flag. By including Filey in the PRF procedure it will mean that on any day when heavy rainfall is expected appropriate notices will be displayed warning of the risk of higher than normal levels. This is known as the Short Term Pollution (STP) notification process. This is very welcome news and I sincerely thank Kevin for his work on our behalf.”
