New bathing water standards, to bring island’s beaches into line with Europe are set to be adopted by 2020.

That’s the pledge from Environment Minister Geoffrey Boot following the publication of an interim report.

However it will be another year before the full report on how the island will achieve this is published.

Mr Boot said: ’Our vision for the future is clear and we are confident that we will be able to work with those responsible for actually delivering improved water quality to improve significantly on the promising results already being achieved.’

He added:’The timescale for adoption of these standards is 2020.

’Manx Utilities and the Department of Infrastructure have committed to a new sewage plant in Peel and one in Laxey.

’The promenade scheme will see improvements to the output into Douglas Bay, as well as a new pumping regime being implemented, I think within the very near future by the MUA.’

Local authorities are to be consulted about the formal designation of public bathing beaches that will be expected to comply with the 2006 EU bathing water quality directive.

Earlier this year the environment and infrastructure policy review committee called upon the Department for the Environment, Food and Agriculture to produce the scoping report about how to ensure the island’s beaches meet the requirements of the 2006 directive.

The beaches at Peel and Douglas, in particular, have struggled to meet the standards that would be required.

DEFA has produced an interim report, in which it states: ’It should be acknowledged that the decisions to construct new sewage treatment works at Peel, Laxey and Ramsey have significantly altered the island’s ability to achieve appropriate bathing water quality standards, though some challenges still remain, such as Douglas bay.’

The current standards adopted by the Isle of Man date back to 1976 and are used to monitor 19 beaches.

The 2006 directive has more stringent requirements for water quality and also calls for more ’rigorous management’ of bathing beaches.

Analysis

Using the 2006 directive as a basis of analysis, in 2017 Peel and Douglas were the two locations with the most ’failures’ during weekly monitoring. In the same year Port Grenaugh, Fenella, Jurby, Ramsey, Laxey and Garwick all registered at least three failures during the 20-week bathing season.

But the report adds there were ’some positive indicators’ with 12 locations registering ’sufficient’ or better in 2017, while five registered an improvement over previous years. Over a four-year period, seven locations have been repeatedly compliant with the 2006 directive.

During 2018, there were ’only’ 19 poor grades in the first 13 weeks of the season, compared with 43 weeks for the same period in 2017.

The report proposes a new scheme to ensure designated beaches meet the standard.

It should include ’agreement with the relevant local authorities to commit to a formal beach designation process and to administer prescribed beach cleaning, management schemes and provision of suitable toilet facilities for designated bathing beaches’.

It adds: ’Local authorities would have the choice as to whether or not they wished a beach in their parish/town to be formally considered as a bathing beach.’

It also calls for more comprehensive monitoring of water quality at the beaches and to tackle contributory problems.

’As some of the peaks in failure are measured at beaches for which the likely causes are diffuse pollution from farmland or septic tank failures, the provision of guidance to farmers and those who rely on septic tanks on measures they can take to make a positive contribution to bathing water quality, is seen to be a high priority,’ it states.

Last week, in Tynwald, Chris Robertshaw (Douglas East) expressed disappointment that the interim report was merely the subject of a statement - meaning that only specific questions could be asked - and not put down for a full debate, which would allow for wider discussion.

He said Mr Boot was ’beginning to exhibit a predilection for operating within a framework of offering presentations to members which are then followed by questions and then (Tynwald) statements, which again allow us only to offer questions’.

Sea water around Ramsey came out joint top with Derbyhaven for cleanliness in the latest government laboratory statistics, scoring 100% in tests for excellent water quality.

Ramsey town clerk Peter Whiteway said the results demonstrated the vast improvements in standards since the commissioning of the Balladoole treatment plant by Manx Utilities.

’It is very encouraging news. We should see lots of people in the water on January 1!’ he added.