A public briefing exhibition will be held next week on long-awaited plans for Peel’s regional sewage treatment works.

Glenfaba House has been acquired by Manx Utilities as the site for the facility.

Treatment to modern day standards will result in cleaner beaches for Peel as raw sewage will no longer be pumped out to sea.

Effluent will be pumped from the existing pumping station on Peel promenade, through pipes laid in East Quay and the treated flow will return by gravity to the existing Peel sea outfall.

Exhibitions will take place on Monday (December 10) at Knockaloe Visitor Centre Hall (the former Patrick Old School Hall), between 11am and 7pm, and on Thursday at The Peel Sailors’ Shelter on East Quay, between the same time.

The displays will explain the background to the project, why the plant is to be located at Glenfaba House and the extensive efforts to make sure the works blend into the environment with minimal impact on residents.

The Glenfaba site was bought by Manx Utilities in the autumn of last year. It was one of four options considered, the others being the Ballaterson fields adjacent to the power station, Knockaloe, and a site next to Glenfaba House on the seaward side.

The authority said the Glenfaba site has many advantages, not least removing the need for large lorries to drive through Peel to service the facility. The authority says access will not require the building of a bridge and the site is well concealed and not visible even from Peel Hill.

The project is aimed to be completed by 2021, subject to financial and planning approval, tendering and bid appraisal, design and surveying and contract placement.

Peel beach has consistently failed to meet bathing water standards.

The Manx government has pledged to bring island’s beaches into line with European bathing water standards by 2020.

Current standards date back to 1976 and are used to monitor 19 beaches.

But the aim is for Manx beaches to comply with the 2006 EU bathing water quality directive which has more stringent requirements for water quality and also calls for more ’rigorous management’ of bathing beaches.

Using the 2006 directive as a basis of analysis, Peel and Douglas were the two locations with the most ’failures’ during weekly monitoring in 2017.