By Aileen Robertson

DUNFERMLINE EAST MSP Helen Eadie has called for action to prevent Aberdour’s Silver Sands losing Blue Flag status because of sewage contamination.

The village’s Black Sands beach has failed to qualify for a Seaside Award for water quality and locals have blamed overflowing drains in Shore Road.

Scottish Water said it is trying to discover what is causing sewage to spill out onto the road and has apologised to residents.

Mrs Eadie has written to Scottish Water’s chief executive, heads of environmental services and transport at Fife Council and environment minister Mike Russell about the concerns in Aberdour.

She said, “I understand Scottish Water has been aware of the matter for the past few months but it is clear that the local residents are still extremely concerned with the state of the drainage situation in the area.

“The local beach affected by the sewage run-off is a European Union Blue Flag beach which has earned numerous awards over the past 10 years—a status almost certainly threatened by the current events.

“This has the dangerous potential to impact on local tourism in the long term as well.

“My constituents have highlighted the need for immediate attention to a broken sewage pipe in Aberdour, which at times of overflow after rain has resulted in blockage and a run-off of drain water and raw sewage across the road and down the steps onto the local beach.

“This has been a particular problem as of late with all the recent rainfall and I fully support their concerns.

“There are a number of urgent health and safety issues stemming from this matter, not to mention infrastructure and environmental impacts as well,” she added.

“A particularly alarming point was raised in one of the Emails where the resident stated it was apparent that children have been building castles and digging around in the drainage channels now running onto the beach.

“I have contacted senior officials in Scottish Water and Fife Council to urge immediate action into this matter to halt the flow of sewage and minimise any further damage to local health and environmental factors,” Mrs Eadie said.

“I have also copied the correspondence to the minister for environment Mike Russell MSP to request a high level of co-ordination between all the agencies and a personal meeting if a resolution is not reached quickly.”

A spokesman for Scottish Water said, “We are conducting investigations at Shore Road, Aberdour. A network analyst is doing an in-depth study to check sewer capacity and to locate any possible sewer breakages or blockages.

“Scottish Water recently performed a CCTV survey on the immediate network and will now analyse the network outside of the immediate locality to find a solution.

“We are working closely with our colleagues at Fife Council who manage the road gullies that discharge into the combined sewer and surface water system.

“We apologise to local residents for any inconvenience they have experienced as a result of issues with the waste water network.”