Exclusive: Campaigning residents cheer proposed sewage plant upgrade

Scarborough businessman Don Robinson has been leading a campaign by residents of the resort's well-to-do Scalby Mills area, overlooking the North Bay.

He says the community has been suffering from sewage smells, when the town is busy, and a strong chemical smell that sometimes lasts through the night.

He said: "Scarborough's North Bay is a Blue Flag beach and we need the Blue Flag with all the surfers and children playing on the beach and going into the water.

"The smells have been going on for a couple of years and a large number of residents have been affected. There are strong feelings that it has to be put right."

The Blue Flag programme is an internationally recognised indicator of water and beach cleanliness and the ability to give real-time warnings on pollution is one of the criteria involved in it being awarded.

But as reported by the Yorkshire Post, Surfers Against Sewage say that more than a quarter of the UK's beaches should be stripped of their Blue Flag status because of pollution concerns.

Research by the group showed the North Bay was one of 34 beaches around the country, and one of four in the Yorkshire region, not meeting safety requirements.

The failing occurred because local authorities responsible for the sands did not request real-time information on combined sewage overflow discharge, so could let people know when sewage was actually going into the sea.

Yorkshire Water is to unveil a package of new investment in September but the details are being kept under wraps until the official announcement.

But the Yorkshire Post can reveal that 7.6m of the cash is to be spent in Scarborough.

A Yorkshire Water spokesman confirmed the sum yesterday.

He added: "As part of a wider multi-agency investment to improve the quality of bathing water's down the east coast which is due to be announced later this year, Yorkshire Water can confirm that part of this includes 7.6m to upgrade Scalby Mills waste water pumping station and Scarborough waste water treatment works.

"At the moment it is too early to detail exactly what this investment will include as a scoping project has just begun."

Mr Robinson said yesterday: "It is absolutely fabulous and a real coup for Scarborough to get this amount of money."

In the early 1990s, Mr Robinson and his neighbours were involved in a long running dispute with Yorkshire Water over a rotten eggs type smell coming from the Scalby Mills pumping station, which used to discharge screened raw sewage into the sea.

However, Yorkshire Water opened a 30m sewage treatment plant north of Scalby Mills 10 years ago that was designed so sewage from Scarborough was pumped to Scalby Mills, and then taken through an underground pipeline to the north at a site at Scalby Lodge.

The sewage is treated four times, firstly at Scalby Mills and then at the new plant, which includes hi-tech ultra violet light disinfection.

However, Mr Robinson says that the smells showed that the process was not adequate as they do not occur all the time, but during the busy holiday season when the sewage system works flat out.

Seafront workers near the Scalby Mills ventilation stacks said they were affected. One said: "Sometimes it's so bad you can taste it in your sandwiches."