THREE of Merseyside’s most popular beaches are likely to fail new European quality tests, according to a major study.
Southport and Ainsdale beaches passed the existing European minimum water quality levels, but would fail the more stringent rulings which come into force in 2015.
Red Rocks, at Hoylake, failed to meet even the present standards in the tests, which were carried out from May to September last year. The poor results, published in the new Marine Conservation Society’s Good Beach Guide today, were blamed on high seasonal rainfall.
The society said that caused a network of sewer overflows to discharge raw sewage onto some beaches from an overloaded system.
