Milestone for £110m scheme to boost bathing quality

Work is set to start on one of the key elements of a £110m strategy to transform the region’s beaches and bathing waters into the best in Europe.

The project is the focal point of an ambitious two-year scheme to improve the 50-mile stretch of Yorkshire’s coastline and will see a giant new storage tank built on Scarborough’s famous Marine Drive.

It will be housed in Yorkshire Water’s Toll House Pumping Station as part of the firm’s £50m investment in the town to improve water quality in the North and South Bays to meet stricter European bathing water standards.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

With improvements set for 20 of the region’s beaches between now and 2014, the investment in Scarborough is the most significant amount at any single resort on the Yorkshire Coast.

Once the work on Marine Drive is completed, the tank will be capable of holding 4,000 cubic metres of water during heavy rainfall, before it is pumped to Scarborough Waste Water Treatment works. The increased storage will ensure more waste water is treated before it is discharged into the sea.

Claire Glavina, from Yorkshire Water’s community engagement team, said: “The work we are about to embark on at our Toll House Pumping Station is the most significant part of our work in Scarborough. This is because it’s the most challenging piece of work from an engineering perspective as it’s so close to the cliff, and it’s also the most significant investment we’re making in Scarborough to improve bathing water quality.” The work will boost the quality of bathing water at the resort’s South Bay, which needs improving to meet the new ‘Excellent’ standard under the new European regulations that were announced in 2010. From 2015, all bathing waters will need to meet these standards which are about twice as stringent as the current regulations.

Miss Glavina said: “It will benefit the South Bay because with these new standards coming in we have been able to produce a report which outlines what the impact of the improvements will be. In the North Bay, which currently holds a Blue Flag, it is already predicted to reach these standards but the South Bay needs improving .”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The work will start on Monday and temporary traffic measures will be put in place around the site. However, the road is expected to remain open until after Easter. Over the past fortnight Yorkshire Water staff have been abseiling down the cliffs above the site in order to put up netting to prevent rock falls during the work.

The company has already started a £7.6m upgrade of its waste water treatment works, near Burniston, and the project is set to be completed in time for the upcoming bathing season in May. Other sites set for improvements are at Wheatcroft pumping station, Peasholm Gap and Scalby Mills Pumping Station.