Yorkshire's seaside resorts like Scarborough, Filey and Bridlington are amongst the most popular holiday destinations in the UK. Each year thousands of tourists flock to these shores for fun, a bit of relaxation or even for a dip. In fact Scarborough is Britain's oldest seaside holiday resort welcoming visitors for over 360 years.
We want tourists and people living in these areas to enjoy Yorkshire's beaches for years to come. That's why we're investing £110 million between 2010-2015 to help many of our local seaside resorts achieve an 'excellent' bathing water quality standard - meaning more of our beaches will be flying the blue flag.
What 'excellent' means
In 2006 something called the revised European Bathing Waters Directive (rBWD) was adopted which sets new standards for bathing water quality. These standards mean that bathing waters across the UK must meet a new 'sufficient' grading by 2015. From this point bathing waters would be classified as being either
poor ,
sufficient ,
good or
excellent quality.
Only bathing waters classified as excellent will enable local authorities to apply for a coveted European Blue Flag, a recognised quality marque that has major benefits for tourism, local businesses and wider communities.
Flying the Blue Flag
Why stop at sufficient? We want Yorkshire's East Coast to be recognised for having great beaches so that's why we're currently investing £110 million to help many of our resorts achieve the higher excellent standard - something no other water company is aiming to do.
This year (2011) we're celebrating the news that Yorkshire's seaside resorts have been officially recognised as some of the best in the world by anti-litter charity, Keep Britain Tidy.
Yorkshire currently boasts 17 award-winning beaches, including five which have been awarded the prestigious Blue Flag which recognises those coastal destinations with the highest standards of water quality, cleanliness and safety.
The five Blue Flag resorts in Yorkshire are Hornsea. Withernsea, Whitby, Filey and Scarborough North.
Each year the Marine Conservation Society release
The Good Beach Guide, a free guide to help you find a clean safe beach in the UK. The 2011 guide contains 461 beaches which have been recognised for their great water quality. There are currently 12 beaches in Yorkshire that that have made it onto their list.
Our £110 million investment will help to secure more blue flags along the East Coast - eight in total (see map below). By going for the excellent bathing water standard Yorkshire's beaches will be amongst the very best in Europe, surpassing the likes of popular summer hotspots in Spain, Portugal and Italy.
View Excellent bathing waters and blue flag status: Our plans for 2015 in a larger map
Watch our video to see how we're planning to achieve the excellent standard.
Who we're working with
The revised directive poses a number of challenges for water companies,
Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the
Environment Agency (EA), Local Authorities and Beach Operators.
We alone can't be responsible for the quality of Yorkshire's bathing waters - we have a big role to play, but we need the help of other agencies to guarantee that our beaches and bathing waters have the best chance of achieving blue flags.
The Environment Agency will be managing the Bathing Water Directive project but 
improving standards is not their only objective. They would also like to see daily water quality predictions at coastal resorts to warn people if the quality of water changes and it is no longer suitable for bathing. The Scarborough Borough Council will have a key role to play in producing bathing water profiles and providing daily information to the public.
Key project milestones
The timeline for delivery is:
2010 - We begin outlining what steps need to be taken to ensure we do all we can to achieve the excellent bathing water quality standard. For example, we're planning to invest £7.6 million in Scarborough to upgrade our sewage treatment works and facilities so they are amongst the best in the world.
2011 - The Environment Agency will establish bathing water profiles for all bathing waters.
2012 - Monitoring will begin for a 4 year classification of bathing water to be in place by 2015.
2015 - The Environment Agency will publish our first classification of bathing waters under the revised European Bathing Water Directive (rBWD)
