Staithes: Tide turns on Yorkshire’s most iconic beach

The cluster of cottages clinging to the coast surrounding a fishing harbour transports thousands of visitors every year to a bygone era.

But in recent decades a very modern concern about the quality of bathing waters has cast something of a shadow over its beach.

And Scarborough Council could start a process next week which leads to Staithes being removed from the official list of bathing beaches.

It will carry out a survey during this summer’s tourist season to find out how many people are using the beach.

Low numbers and the lack of facilities for bathers could be used by the council as grounds to ask the Government to “de-designate” the beach as suitable for bathing.

However, a report to be considered by councillors next week makes clear that concerns about water quality are also a driving factor.

Staithes has “consistently failed” to meet the current standard, it says, and new tougher rules are on the way.

Councillors are told a “poor” rating five years in a row under the new regime will automatically see the beach removed from the bathing list with the additional ignominy of signs warning against swimming.

“De-designation could avoid five years of negative publicity and signage about ‘Poor’ bathing water quality,” the report says.

The prospect of a downgrading of the beach is already prompting anger in the village.

Harbour master and parish councillor Norman Fowler said: “De-designation is the low cost, or no cost, solution, that’s the top and bottom of it. It is a bit of paperwork rather than putting the problem right.”

Mr Fowler said that while issues with sewage had largely been solved by Yorkshire Water there remained an issue with run-off from farming land.

But he insisted that local people had ideas for changes to the harbour and local drainage that would go a long way to solving the problem.

“Not once have the Environment Agency or Yorkshire Water consulted with fishermen in the village, people who know what the tide does and what the current does.”

According to the Environment Agency, studies showed the majority of the pollution coming from Staithes Beck with agricultural run-off the biggest cause.

While the Beck was not particularly unusual the fact it runs into an enclosed harbour and the beach’s location inside the harbour walls meant it has a higher impact.

“We’ve done some final tests looking at the effect of removing diffuse pollution and introducing gaps in the harbour walls to see if anything could be done to make a long term improvement in water quality.

“The results of these tests have shown that the measures don’t offer a significant enough improvement in water quality for it to reliably achieve the minimum standard under the revised Bathing Water Directive,” a spokesman said.

Lindsay Page, Yorkshire Water’s bathing water manager, said: “We have worked hard as part of the Yorkshire Bathing Water Partnership to help understand bathing water quality at Staithes and we will continue to work with them to help in any way possible with the challenging issue of water quality at Staithes.”

Scarborough Council’s cabinet will be asked to approve a consultation on the future of Staithes as a bathing beach on Tuesday.

They will also be asked to support a survey of the number of beach users during the summer.

The results of both studies will be considered in the autumn.