Polluted Beaches

The Sunday Times (today, 1st May) carries two articles about polluted beaches in England and Wales, and about the outcome of its campaign to warn bathers "when they face the risk of swimming in waters polluted with sewage", usually caused by storm overflow pipes. Beaches such as Bournemouth, Swanage and Sandbanks, Poole, will be monitored, but the scheme will apparently cover less than 50 beaches in England and Wales.

There is concern about the quality of bathing water at Church beach, Lyme Regis.

Charles Clover calls his article "The stench of a cover-up on our soiled beaches" (page 27).

Following a visit to Lyme Regis last week, he cites reports that "Lyme's councillors are thinking of scrapping the designation of 'bathing beach' for one of the beaches we were looking because it consistently fails European standards for bathing water....It is scandalous that one of the regular failures should be Lyme Regis, one of the tourist honeypots of the south coast. The culprit apparently, is the River Lyme, which discharges into the bay via Church beach."

It is an important article, especially as children have already started swimming, as a result of the warm weather.

I hope the local councillors will take the matter seriously and take action to ensure real improvements, not just in order to avoid bad publicity.

Charles Clover makes a strong case for freedom of information.