Sir Robert Goodwill appointed as chair of Yorkshire Bathing Water Partnership

Former MP Sir Robert Goodwill has been appointed the chair of the Yorkshire Bathing Water Partnership. 

The partnership brings together Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency and local authorities where Yorkshire’s bathing waters are located. 

The appointment of Sir Robert follows a full renewal of the structure and governance of the Yorkshire Bathing Water Partnership. 

In the role, Sir Robert, who previously attended bathing water partnership meetings as the MP for Scarborough and Whitby, will help to steer the direction of the partnership and work with other bathing water chairs across the country to share learnings as the Yorkshire partnership continues its work to improve bathing water quality across the region.  

The partnership is initially focused on bathing waters in the region with a ‘poor’ classification and developing an understanding how to work together on any new designated bathing waters across Yorkshire, and any bathing waters designated in the future. 

Sir Robert will also be working to appoint an independent stakeholder representative who will look to bring together local interest groups around bathing waters to improve transparency between communities and share the progress being made by the partnership. 

Sir Robert Goodwill said: “The quality of our bathing waters is important to everyone in our region, whether that’s their use of waters for recreation or for its influence on tourism. Bringing together the partnership in one place and exploring the various opportunities we have to make improvements across all our coastal and inland bathing waters is positive and something I’m looking forward to being involved in. 

“One of my first actions will be to appoint an independent stakeholder representative. They will bring together local interest groups to ensure they are involved in the work we’re doing to improve bathing waters and to improve transparency around the process, the complexities and the challenges we’re facing now and into the future.” 

The inaugural board meeting of the new Yorkshire Bathing Water Partnership is expected to take place in August.