Visitors to Hornsea Beach this week had reported discoloured water and foul smells
The water at Hornsea on Saturday, August 22.(Image: David Rhodes)
Yorkshire Water says tests of sea water from Hornsea Beach have shown no pollution. Staff from the utilities company were dispatched to Hornsea this weekend following pictures of dirty looking water and reports of bad smells associated with it.
The water company said it had tested samples from the beach which had also been visited by experts from the Environment Agency who also reported no pollution but suggested it could be algae being washed ashore. It follows concerns raised by visitors to the beach and local resident David Rhodes who campaigns for water quality at Hornsea.
Pictures from Saturday afternoon (August 22) showed brown water washing against the kilometre long beach. They prompted Yorkshire Water to open a Pollution Service Event, with a team sent to the Holderness Coast tourist spot to investigate.
The shore at Hornsea remains designated bathing waters on the Environment Agency’s Swimfo website, which helps swimmers determine water quality. Earlier this year, Hornsea Beach was awarded Blue Flag status, partly due to ‘excellent’ water quality levels reported since 2022.
Mr Rhodes, who contacted Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency this weekend, said: “What I’m trying to do in Hornsea is to get Yorkshire Water to invest in the town. The town is expanding and every time it rains we seem to get sewage releases here.
“It leads me to the conclusion that the infrastructure is not satisfactory to deal with the rain – and it’s not even storm incidents, it’s just when it rains.
“I go out quite regularly to fish from a boat and I’ve noticed the fish stocks have definitely declined. We used to be able to go out and get 100 mackerel in a day but now we’re struggling to get 10 or 12. I don’t have the scientific background to be able to say that is because of the pollution but it is a concern, and particularly for a holiday resort.”
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