Kinghorn beach sewage: community paying price for lack of radical action on sewage
Raw sewage should not be washing up on our beaches. That is the reality facing parts of my constituency, and I am not willing to let it continue without a fight.
I have been raising the sewage crisis at Kinghorn Beach for over a year.
Recently, more than 100 residents came to a public meeting I organised, where officials from SEPA and Scottish Water admitted the beach is at high risk of losing its bathing water designation. This would be a devastating blow to Kinghorn, a community where the beach is central to its identity and economy. It should never have got to this point, and I will keep pushing for the radical action and investment needed to find a solution.
But the problem is not confined to Kinghorn Beach. Alongside Kinghorn, Pettycur Bay and Burntisland beaches have had their bathing water quality downgraded in recent years. Aberdour suffered significant pollution events last month, prompting SEPA to issue do-not-swim warnings after finding high microbiological contamination readings at the beach.
Sewage discharges also forced organisers of the Aberdour Festival to move events, to avoid streams of faecal matter.
These are not isolated incidents. Kinghorn Beach has been rated ‘Poor’ in every year bar one since 2017 and Scottish Water have been aware since 2019 that the likely source of poor water quality was the Lady Burn.
Households are being asked to pay more, with water bills rising by 8.7% this year. The boss of Scottish Water got a hefty pay rise and bonus despite the situation in Fife. Constituents are rightly asking why they should pay more for a service that is failing to stop human waste being discharged into their community.
Scottish Water and the Scottish Government have had opportunities to take radical action. They did not take them, and communities across Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy are facing the consequences. What we need is investment and urgency, not more sticking plasters while our beaches and local economy pay the price.
I will keep pushing this issue and demanding that Scottish Water and the Scottish Government do better. Families here deserve clean beaches and a water system that works for them, not one that leaves them out of pocket while pollution continues.