Exclusive: Blue Flag cheer as two beaches make grade for water quality

The results of this year's sampling of the bathing water along the East Coast will be officially published by the Environment Agency on November 15. But the Yorkshire Post can exclusively reveal that Withernsea and Hornsea have achieved the excellent standard set by the European Union. It means that East Riding of Yorkshire Council will again be able to seek Blue Flag status for the beaches, which will be the only ones in the East Riding with the award. Currently there are eight resort beaches in Yorkshire which can apply for the flags, subject to their hitting water quality and other targets. They are Withernsea; Hornsea; Bridlington South, Bridlington North, Scarborough North, Scarborough South, Whitby and Filey. This year only Bridlington North, Whitby, Scarborough North, and Filey had Blue Flags. Hornsea and Withernsea both lost theirs in 2009, based on water quality findings for 2008. However, Yorkshire Water officials say both Hornsea and Withernsea achieved the excellent standard this year, but Bridlington North missed the pristine standard by a whisker, giving it only a mandatory standard pass. As a result Bridlington North will not be flying the flag next summer, and neither will Bridlington South, which has a long history of failing to measure up. But overall Yorkshire Water are pleased that two Blue Flags will be flying in the East Riding for summer 2011 rather than just one. Water quality will become even more important to tourism with the introduction of a new EU Directive in 2015. Visitors will now need to be given much more information including a description of the water quality and details of any pollution. The data goes live on the Internet from next year and from 2012 there will also have to be notices on beaches. East Riding Council leader Stephen Parnaby underlined that Blue Flags were vital to tourism. He said: "If you see a sign saying water quality is 'sufficient', what sort of message does that send out? "It does not really matter how many people actually go in the water. If there is not a Blue Flag there the place itself is thought not to be clean. "It reflects on the whole town. It is more important than just reflecting water quality. "We are talking about 14,000 tourism jobs in the region as a whole and money that comes into the area that supports our local businesses and creates other jobs. "It is about water quality but it is also about something much bigger – promoting tourism over an extended season when we are constantly thinking about what our visitors think and how to get them here." Although the credit crunch had led to the growth of the "Staycation" giving a massive boost to the domestic holiday market, the challenge now was to manage the tourism product despite Government cuts. But the East Riding will benefit from being part of the powerful new partnership steering a 110m investment in bathing water improvements over the next five years. "Things are going to be tough over the next few years. Money is not going to be in plentiful supply. That is why we need this partnership," Coun Parnaby continued. So although he was delighted with Blue Flag success, he did not want the East Riding to be seen as being in competition with the neighbouring coastal borough of Scarborough. "It is not really about individual local authorities. If you are a customer you just think of visiting the coast. We are all in it together," he added.