Bognor's seawater as clean as it ever was

Cllr Dingemans is in charge of Arun District Council's tourism work as part of his cabinet duties for economic regeneration and cultural development.

He was speaking at Monday's promenade flag-raising ceremony for the national Quality Coast Award which Bognor's sea and beach has received from the Encams charity.

This year is the first since 2001 when Bognor's eastern beach is unable to boast of a European Blue Flag flying above its seafront.

Dirty water on too many occasions last summer put paid to the hopes of a seventh successive triumph and eight in all.

But Cllr Dingemans said: "I would be quite happy to go in for a swim. I don't want anybody to be put off coming here because there is no Blue Flag. These flags always relate to the last year."

This year, there is no reason why Bognor's seawater won't be good enough to reach the Blue Flag standard again.

The award flag was hoisted up one of the bandstand flagpoles by Arun District Council chairman Cllr Ashvin Patel and Bognor mayor Cllr Jennifer Gillibrand.

Arun's tourism manager, Richard Edwards, said the award replaced the annual seaside awards which Bognor had won 14 times since 1992.

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