Dear Editor
Last year, Church Beach in Lyme Regis was successfully re-designated as a bathing beach after a concerted effort by River Lim Action (RLA), Lyme Regis Bluetits and others. This case study is now being used by Surfers Against Sewage as part of a legal challenge to changes to government regulations on the designation of bathing beaches.
The changes mean that, in future, a beach such as Church Beach applying for designation would not pass the water quality test and would likely be barred from applying. Designation leads to regular monitoring, an action plan to clean up the beach and better information for the public.
The government is introducing a rule that any beach or water body with poor water quality would be barred because it wouldn’t be ‘feasible’ to improve it.
Since beautiful Church Beach was re-designated, there has been signage about pollution risks and an action plan drawn up on how water quality will be improved. South West Water’s Turning the Tide programme will reduce sewage discharges as part of delivering the necessary improvements.
I helped coordinate the campaign on behalf of River Lim Action and I’ve provided a witness statement to support this action in the High Court because there’s a real public health risk in the Government’s proposed changes. People will swim anyway and stopping popular beaches from being designated means no monitoring, information or clean up. When we applied for designation, we anticipated the water quality would be classified as ‘poor’ and, therefore, the goal was to secure investment and commitment to clean up the sources of pollution (mainly human sewage). That’s already led to concerted efforts and visible results.
Yours faithfully
Vicki Elcoate, RLA coordinator
