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BBC News
12-02-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Scarborough swimmers test sea water amid quality concerns
Scarborough swimmers have been shown how to test water from seaside bathing spots following concerns about the water quality at the town's North and South Bay. Scientists from Imperial College London encouraged residents to bring their own water samples to an event at Gallows Close Centre in the town. Testing kits revealed different types of pollution in the water, ranging from sewage to run-off from farms. Organisers said the session would help beachgoers to make informed decisions about swimming in the water off the North Yorkshire coast. Samples of water at Scarborough's North Bay showed the standard had dropped from "good" to "sufficient" and South Bay retained the lowest rating of "poor", according to the latest data from the Environment Leon Barron, from Imperial College London, said the testing event was a form of "citizen science", which would help residents improve their understanding of issues with water quality. "They know their communities and their areas best, so they come in with all that knowledge we don't have and we train them how to test a sample," he said."We explain what it means and they can continue to test thereafter."In coastal towns, Dr Barron said they would look for things like wastewater and sewage in the samples."We also might want to look out for run-off from agriculture or industrial parks," he added. Some of the samples would be sent off to Imperial College London to look at more detailed chemistry and other contaminants in the water, such as caffeine. Sue Baxter, who regularly bodyboards at North and South Bay, attended the event."North Bay always was very good but this last year the rating has gone down, which was a real issue," she Baxter said she had "real worries" over the decline in water her sample alongside swimmer Janet Wilson, the women found fertiliser from farms in the water."We do monitor sewage discharge," Ms Wilson said."We always wash our kit afterwards, have a shower and don't put our heads under," Ms Baxter added."We had one lady who was very ill when she put her head under."Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
BBC News
28-01-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
River Deben flood prevention funding of £280,000 secured
An organisation has secured £280,000 worth of flood prevention funding for an area that was severely hit during village of Debenham in Suffolk saw 70 properties flooded during Storm Babet in October 2023, largely due to the River Deben Suffolk Catchment Partnership is working to improve the flow of the river and secured the funding from the Environment Helen Dangerfield, director at Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust which is working on the project, said this flood prevention scheme had been a "real priority" for the group. "It's really important," she said."We can see from the impacts of the rainfall before Storm Babet, and at Storm Babet itself, that flood resilience needs to increase in the upper part of the catchment and throughout the catchment."A Suffolk County Council report released last year told how most of the flooding in Debenham during Storm Babet came from both overflowing rivers and surface run-off the report, the Environment Agency said it had "assessed the river level data and flood impacts" and refined its flood warning and alert trigger threshold levels after issues were raised with the system by the Suffolk Catchment Partnership's Debenham flood prevention project is part of its wider initiative, Recovering the Deben: From Source to Sea. Dr Dangerfield explained it would look at two watercourses - the Cherry Tree brook and Derry brook that both flooded during Storm flood prevention plan will see two new natural flood storage areas built to lower the risk of flooding first of these will be created at Winston Green, with a capacity for up to 14,500 cubic metres of floodwater."We're just awaiting planning permission, but we're hoping to start [on the Cherry Tree brook] in the spring and it should be finished by the summer," Dr Dangerfield continued."That's the first of the two schemes and then the Derry brook will follow on later, we're just in the process of finalising the designs for that one."New ponds will also be created to improve water quality and attract wildlife. 'Working together' Dr Dangerfield said the project had come about as a "result of people working together"."These projects wouldn't come about without the landowners, farmers and forward-thinking individuals who have put forward the areas of land to store water on," she Dangerfield said she hoped to look at other areas prone to flooding and encouraged anyone with ideas to get in touch with East Suffolk Catchment Partnership. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
