Berwick councillor seeks assurances from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency over water pollution issue

Earlier this year at a Northumberland County Council meeting, Georgina Hill raised concerns about raw sewage being dumped in the waters around Spittal Beach, which is in her Berwick East ward, resulting in the area being deemed unsafe for bathing.

Council leader Glen Sanderson agreed to help lobby Northumbrian Water on the matter and last month, it was announced that a £50million project to upgrade the storm overflows in Spittal and Tweedmouth was confirmed and brought forward from 2025 to start almost immediately.

A report from Northumbrian Water last year found that one of the biggest causes of pollution in the waters around Berwick comes from agricultural land – this is run-offs from chemicals and other materials used for farming and dead animals. Some of this land is over the border in Scotland.

Now Coun Hill has contacted the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) asking: “What steps are SEPA taking to reduce pollution from this source?” and also saying: “Can you assure me that the fact we are in another country does not impact you taking steps to ensure farmers/proprietors of agricultural land in Scotland are being made to meet their environmental responsibilities.”

Explaining why she did this, she said: “Understandably, the thing which shocks residents the most is raw sewage being dumped into our waters by water companies. However, there are other things going on which adversely affects the water quality.

“Northumbrian Water has recently agreed to upgrade the storm overflows here, which is excellent news, but we need to fight on for what else needs to be done.

“There are measures farmers are obliged to take, which are not necessarily cheap, but are important to protect our waters and I would like assurances from SEPA that they are doing all they can to ensure these regulations are being adhered to and that there is cross border co-operation on this.”

A statement in response to Coun Hill and the media from a SEPA spokesman said: “As part of Scotland’s Rural Diffuse Pollution Plan, SEPA in 2010 identified all at-risk bathing waters which had the potential of being impacted by agricultural activity.

“The main driver for this work was the potential impact of faecal bacteria from livestock affecting bathing water quality. Although Spittal Bathing Beach is in England and monitored by the Environment Agency, both the Rivers Tweed and Whittedder catchments have the potential to impact on Spittal Bathing Beach as a result of agricultural activity taking place in Scotland.

“As part of Scotland’s rural diffuse pollution plan, those catchments in Scotland which possibly could impact Spittal Bathing water were identified for a SEPA visit.

“SEPA staff visited over 600 farms in the River Tweed and Whiteadder Water catchments from 2016 to 2018 to assess compliance with Scotland’s diffuse pollution General Binding Rules (GBR’s).

“At each farm visit a pollution audit was carried out involving a steading inspection to access the pollution risk from manure/slurry collection, storage and handling, silage facilities, pesticide handling and all watercourses on the farm were inspected to assess diffuse pollution risk from livestock poaching, cultivation and manure and slurry applications.

“Of the 600 farms initially visited, approximately 50 per cent were identified as being non-compliant with Scotland’s farming regulations. 80 per cent of all the issues found on these non-compliant farms were livestock poaching issues (GBR19) i.e. where livestock had unrestricted access to watercourses and the river banks were trampled significantly resulting in the potential for faecal bacteria to affect the water quality.

“Where issues were found at a particular farm, general advice on mitigation was discussed and the farm was given a year to remediate the issues. A revisit to each non-compliant farm was undertaken 12 months after the initial visit to assess progress with compliance. Farmers had the opportunity to apply for funding to remediate issues, which many did to great effect.

“The response from the agricultural community in the Tweed and Whiteadder catchments has been excellent, and the compliance figure for these catchments is now well over 90 per cent. SEPA continues to work with farmers in these catchments to address non-compliant issues. Further work is scheduled to be undertaken in the upper Tweed catchment, a part of RBMP3.

“Our work with Scottish farmers has been reflected in an improvement in bathing water quality at Spittal, which has been classed as excellent for the last two years.”