On the contamination of Whitburn beach, UK 

Pétition adressée à : Petitionsausschuss des Europäischen Parlaments

The petitioner refers to a complaint submitted to the European Commission in 2000 concerning sewage found in the sea and on the beach at Whitburn in the UK. The Commission brought the case to the CJEU which determined in 2012 that the UK was in breach of Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste-water treatment. It appears that the failure to ensure that appropriate collecting systems were in place led to the contamination of Whitburn beach. The UK government was given 5 years to rectify the problem, until December 2017. The petitioner complains that during that time, the pollution of the beach with sewage has continued; he further claims that pollution is still ongoing despite the completion of the remedial works. In the petitioner’s view, the initial construction design of the collection system was flawed and never met the requirement of the initial licence. He concludes that the data brought by the Commission to the CJEU was therefore flawed, and that the UK is still in breach of Directive 91/271/EEC. He asks that a comprehensive and independently scrutinised review of the structure and capacity of the sewage system be undertaken to ensure its compliance with Directive 91/271/EEC.