00:00 South Bay is one of the 7% of bathing waters that does not get a blue flag. North Yorkshire
00:07 Council recently convened a taskforce, including local politicians, the Environment Agency,
00:13 Yorkshire Water and others, including academics from Durham University, to look at the problem.
00:18 What became very clear is that it is not as simple as many people think. Discharges are
00:22 coming from further north, around the bay, but also pathogens were picked up not only
00:27 from human effluent but from seabirds, dogs and ruminants. Will the Minister take a personal
00:34 interest in the work that is going on, because lessons learned in Scarborough may well apply
00:37 around the country?
00:38 I thank the hon. Gentleman for that. He highlights that this is just not as simple as people
00:43 think. That is why our plan for water is holistic. It takes a holistic approach to tackling all
00:50 sources of pollution into water. It is also why we launched and increased our £34 million
00:58 slurry fund to help farmers reduce the pollution that they may inadvertently put into the water
01:03 courses.
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