GOOD BEACH GUIDE 2008: SCOTLAND'S TOP BEACHES HIT BY STORM POLLUTION

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) today announces a 10% drop in the number of Scottish bathing beaches recommended for excellent water quality in its annual Good Beach Guide (www.goodbeachguide.co.uk). A total of 44 (41%) beaches are ‘MCS Recommended' this year out of 108 tested, compared to 49 last year. Beaches failing the minimum legal standard more than doubled from 7 to 18 but bathing water tests, conducted from June to September 2007, coincided with the wettest summer in Scotland for 30 years and MCS largely blames the drop in water quality on an increase in storm pollution.

Calum Duncan, MCS Scottish Conservation Manager, said: "These latest MCS results buck the long term trend toward cleaner bathing water but we're pinning the blame on last summer's exceptionally bad weather. Heavy rain sweeps pollutants like raw sewage, street debris and animal waste directly from the land into rivers and the sea. Not all beaches are affected but the problem for swimmers is knowing when and where this has happened."

In May last year, MCS warned that storm run-off from city streets, farm land and combined sewer overflows was hampering efforts by Scottish Water and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to improve bathing water quality. These problems continue, but the 44 beaches recommended this year are still more than triple the total in the Good Beach Guide edition of 1998 which suggests that the £3 billion invested in sewage treatment and infrastructure over the past 7 years has brought permanent benefit to Scotland's beaches.

Calum Duncan continued: "Electronic forecasting signs advising swimmers about beach water quality have been a great success and we need more of them, but we also now need serious investment to tackle pollution  from the hundreds of storm overflows around the coast and the more than two dozen outfalls continuously pumping  poorly treated sewage into the sea.

"MCS is very supportive of the strategy and action plans adopted by SEPA and the Scottish Government to tackle coastal pollution but we equally have concerns that SEPA has reduced bathing water testing by more than 30% since 2003. We would definitely expect to see testing continue at all 108 currently monitored bathing sites."

The 21st edition of the Good Beach Guide is published in support of the MCS Campaign for Clean Seas, and is available online at www.goodbeachguide.co.uk from Friday 23rd May. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) works in partnership with MCS, and the Good Beach Guide now carries information about the RNLI's national beach safety programme as well details of beaches patrolled by the RNLI lifeguards.

‘MCS Recommended' is one of five UK beach awards, but is the only scheme that focuses entirely on water quality standards and the risk of sewage pollution. MCS will only recommend beaches in the Good Beach Guide if they are better than the Guideline European water quality standard and are not affected by inadequately treated continuous sewage discharge.

The Good Beach Guide 2008 - the only independent, comprehensive guide to bathing water quality in the UK - is published online at www.goodbeachguide.co.uk from 00:01 23rd May.

Good Beach Guide 2008 - UK Results Breakdown:

Region

Number

Sampled

Number Recommended by MCS

Number

Failed

2008

2007

2008

2007

% change

2008

2007

Scotland

108

110

44

49

- 10%

18

7

Wales

178

175

102

104

- 2%

15

8

Channel Is.

29

29

8

15

- 47%

1

1

N. Ireland

23

27

10

13

- 23%

3

0

Isle of Man

18

16

1

2

- 50%

4

0

England

423

430

278

312

- 11%

12

1

S. West

192

195

139

155

- 10%

3

0

S. East

133

135

88

98

- 10%

2

0

N. East

65

67

44

52

- 15%

4

1

N. West

33

33

7

7

0

3

0

UK

779

787

443

495

- 10.5%

53

17