September 15 marked the end of the bathing season according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), and hence an end to their regular monitoring of bathing water quality around the coast of Scotland.

Sea water quality is important to the reputation of any seaside resort.

Heavy rain experienced around Britain after the long, dry summer resulted in considerable publicity given to the contamination of bathing waters from sewerage discharges, and it is worth remembering that both the West and East Beaches at North Berwick have accompanying information boards warning bathers not to bathe “during, or 1-2 days after heavy rainfall”, and that “pollution risks are from sewerage sources”.

Whilst the long-term classification of bathing water quality on West Beach is ‘excellent’, on East Beach, where the treatment works are located, it is only ‘sufficient’ – one class above ‘poor’.

Exceptional rainfall can be expected to cause problems for sewage treatment plants unless they have sufficient buffering but in North Berwick’s case, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that the works are currently operating at 25 per cent over their design capacity.

This overload results from the unconstrained expansion of developments around the town over the past few years.

The problem of limited capacity at the works has been recognised since at least 2014.

In 2016, the draft Local Development Plan stated that “in North Berwick, foul drainage capacity is a significant issue beyond existing commitments in the drainage catchment area, which includes Dirleton. There is a considerable funding requirement and lead-in timescale to secure the delivery of a solution that would allow further significant development in this area”.

In September 2016, there was very limited spare capacity available at the works.

I was informed at that time by Scottish Water that “the development proposed within North Berwick and Dirleton does exceed the current capacity of the treatment works” and that Scottish Water were working with the council, SEPA and others on how to resolve this.

Nothing appears to have resulted.

The warning was clearly ignored by council planners; and Scottish Water seems to have opted out of its role of protecting the environment.

The design capacity of the works (10,000 housing equivalent units) was deliberately exceeded and the current load is over 12,500 HE units.

Why no one paid any attention to the constraints and risks is for them to explain.

Queues of tankers lined up outside the sewerage works on East Beach to remove material, presumably to relieve pressure on the works, hardly represent a viable solution.

With no apparent plan on the horizon, perhaps the council will now take the matter seriously.

They should act responsibly by incorporating in their forthcoming Local Development Plan a suspension of new developments in the North Berwick/Dirleton catchment area until increased sewerage capacity has been provided.

For the foreseeable future, bathers at North Berwick will need to remain vigilant.

It is ironic that the very treatment works that, when commissioned in 1995 resulted in “a marked improvement in bathing water quality”, is now the cause of its decline.

Terence Hegarty

Abbotsford Road

North Berwick