'Sewage claims just don't hold water'

CHARITY REFUTES BEACH POLLUTION DATA

- By EDWARD BARNES

A MERSEYSIDE charity is insisting their beach is safe to swim at after it was labelled as one of the most sewage polluted in the country.

Adam Crouch and Adrian Pattinson from Wallasey Beach CIC, based at the West Cheshire Sailing Club on Coastal Drive, have hit back after their beach was labelled as having the most sewage discharges in the UK. This was after a recent protest by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), a campaign group against pollution by water companies in rivers across the country.

Sky News reported the campaign group had chosen Wallasey beach because it had the highest number of sewage discharges for any bathing water. This was based on data from how much sewage was released from outlets in the nearby area, and SAS claim Wallasey was affected by 2,201 spills last year.

However the data, seen by the ECHO, that was used to support this claim appears to have a number of flaws. For example it includes a number of inland sources of sewage in Wirral that don’t drain anywhere near to the beach as well as one sewage outlet in Preston, over an hour's drive away.

The ECHO understands the data provided by water companies indicates which bathing waters could be affected by a sewage spill, but this data is not a measure of any impact on the beach itself. The beach was labelled good by the Environment Agency last year and over the past four years, the government body said sewage debris wasn’t spotted there.