CLEANING up Blackpool's sea to EC bathing water standards will be one of the top priorities for a new North West Coastal Forum.

More than 40 organisations from across the region took part in a full day seminar at the University of Central Lancashire on Friday (September 10) as a first move toward setting up the forum, aimed at improving bathing water from Cumbria to the Wirral.

Blackpool, along with many other premier resorts, has long had to suffer the adverse publicity of its seawater being too contaminated for swimmers, by the EC's high standards.

Organised by the Environment Agency, the seminar included North West Water, 14 councils - among them Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre - Blackpool pier-owners Leisure Parcs, universities, industries, the Country Landowners Association, Lune and Wyre Fishermen's Association, the Marine Conservation Society, Surfers Against Sewage and Tidy Britain Group.

North West Water poured £150m into its massive Seachange clean-up project on the Fylde coast - opening new sewage treatment works at Fleetwood in 1994, building super-sewers and upgrading its Clifton Marsh plant at Freckleton.

Still the water failed EC tests as heavy rain overfilled sewage outflow pipes.

Its latest solution is to build giant new stormwater storage tanks under South Shore's car parks - holding stormwater back until it can be treated - which came into commission on Wednesday (September 15). But with pollution continuing to flow down rivers from inland industries or farmland, the problem is not all in NWW's hands.

A spokesman said: "Our role is to help complete part of the bathing waters jigsaw. Bathing waters are cleaner now than they have been for a long time, but it's not just about wastewater treatment - which was the whole point of the seminar."

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "There was very strong support for a partnership to come together to distil their ideas and from that we'll formulate a programme of action.

"Bathing water quality is a complex topic which involves a multitude of organisations working together in conjunction with the Environment Agency.

"Blackpool is high on the list for any improvements that can be made."

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