Council defends 'marking its own homework' over new water quality tests
A new English Riviera beach standards scheme is being introduced
Torbay Council's defended leaving the Blue Flag water quality scheme - and setting up its own one instead.
South Devon MP Caroline Voaden has called it 'marking your own homework' at a time when confidence in water quality is at an all-time low.
Councillor Adam Billings says it's got the backing of tourist groups in the area as it will double the testing, adding: “"Blue Flag as an organisation require a minimum of five tests per year over the bathing water season to demonstrate water quality, but the new English Riviera beach standards require a minimum of ten.
"This new standard will apply to other beaches too as we look at beaches where their quality is of 'nature'.
"We're able to supply water testing data in an easily accessible way for many, many more beaches to demonstrate to residents and visitors the good water quality that exists in Torbay."
The changes are partly as a result of an update to the Blue Flag scheme which requires 'zones' to keep swimmers and watersport and mortorised craft away from each other
South Devon MP Caroline Voaden said: "This is a classic case of marking your own homework - and will not instil confidence in the way the national Blue Flag scheme did.
"I appreciate some of the Blue Flag regulations are onerous, and it costs money to meet them, but the whole point of the scheme is that it requires commitment by local authorities in order to maintain high standards for all those who use our beaches.
"At a time when confidence in water quality is at an all-time low and people are sick of companies and organisations not fulfilling their duties to the public, or being transparent or trustworthy, I think this decision sends absolutely the wrong message to those who use Torbay’s beaches."
There was an outcry when Torbay Council’s Conservative administration first announced its intentions to stop competing for Blue Flags, which highlight not only water quality but also top-quality beach facilities.
Opposition councillors ‘called in’ the administration’s decision for a grilling at a meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee, but after a lengthy debate they had to concede that the council had no choice but to leave the Blue Flag scheme.
Cllr Adam Billings (Con, Furzeham with Churston) told colleagues: “We all want to allow residents and visitors to get the maximum levels of assurance about our water quality.”
He said the new ERBS would provide more frequent and rigorous water testing than a revised Blue Flag system which now called for beaches to be ‘zoned’ for different users with large segregated areas. The new criteria no longer suited Torbay’s trademark small coves and compact beaches, he said.
“We are here because Blue Flag is ideally set up for long, sandy beaches that can be separated into areas for different uses,” he said. “Trying to apply that system in Torbay would be a logistical challenge.”
He said at a beach like Oddicombe, which is 180 metres long, some users would have to be excluded so others could be accommodated. Gently-sloping Broadsands beach would need hundreds of metres of buoys to mark out its zones.
He went on: “The ERBS is a really sensible way of allowing the excellent water quality at our beaches to be communicated to residents and visitors.”
And, he said, the English Riviera BID Company, which represents the local tourism industry, had been highly supportive.
Cllr Darren Cowell (Ind, Shiphay) said the ‘11th hour’ decision was being taken without consulting the tourist trade properly, and Cllr Cordelia Law (Lib Dem, Tormohun) added: “With so much focus on pollution in our seas at the moment, is now the right time to be ditching our membership of the Blue Flag scheme?”
But Cllr Martin Brook (Con, Collaton St Mary) said: “We’ve got 25 beaches in Torbay, and I think this new scheme can help us celebrate and market them in a much better way than we can currently.”
And Cllr Mark Spacagna (Con, Cockington with Chelston) added: “There isn’t going to be any negative change that I can see.”
The committee eventually voted unanimously to take no further action over the ‘call-in’, meaning that the original move to leave the Blue Flag scheme and set up the ERBS instead will go ahead. Work will now begin to roll out the scheme ahead of the 2026 summer season.
Six Torbay beaches currently hold Blue Flags – Breakwater, Broadsands, Meadfoot, Oddicombe, Preston and Torre Abbey Sands.