Recently the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) announced the classifications of bathing waters for throughout Scotland, including Fife.

According to SEPA, 4 of Fife’s 14 designated bathing waters have been classed as ‘excellent’ with a further 7 rated as ‘good’. Only one area, Kinghorn Harbour Beach, was rated as ‘poor’.

The classifications are a result of the new European classification system which has resulted in much tighter water quality standards. Under the new regulations, four years of monitoring data is used to provide a more consistent picture of water quality.

The 4 ‘excellent’ areas in Fife are amongst the 17 across the country that received the top rating. A further 38 throughout Scotland were rated as ‘good’, 12 ‘sufficient’ and 17 as ‘poor’.

It is great to see the vast majority of Fife’s bathing waters receiving a good or excellent grade, particularly under the new, and more stringent, classification system.

Fife has some of the best beaches and now the best bathing waters in the country and today’s report will hopefully bring a welcome boost to our tourist sector in the region.

It is now important that we all work together to bring all bathing waters in Fife up to a good or excellent standard.

I hope the Scottish Government, SEPA, Scottish Water and Fife Council all work closely to ensure that Fife continues to be one of the best regions in Scotland for its beaches and waters.

The 2016 Scottish bathing waters report from SEPA can be found here: http://www.sepa.org.uk/media/219168/1282_sepa_bathing_waters_2016_web.pdf