A HALF-A-MILLON pound investment to improve bathing water quality in Lyme Regis has been welcomed by council leaders.

Lyme is among the key tourist areas in the region to benefit from a £2 million investment programme announced by South West Water.

Church Beach has consistently failed to reach basic water quality standards in recent years.

The town council has been working with West Dorset District Council, the Environment Agency and South West Water to improve the situation amid features it would impact badly on the town's tourist economy.

Extensive improvements will now be made to sewers and treatment works and help the Lyme Regis beach meet the tougher standards of the European Union's Revised Bathing Directive from 2015.

The water company has confirmed that £500,000 of the funding will be ploughed into Lyme Regis.

A South West Water spokesman said: “This will include building an additional 160 cubic metres of storm storage at Sleech Wood Sewage Treatment Works and an additional 39 cubic metres of storm storage at Cobb Pumping Station.

“This extra capacity will mean fewer emergency discharges from our network during extremely wet weather.”

Exceptionally heavy rainfall has been largely to blame for poor water quality in recent years, which causes more pollution to be washed into bathing waters.

Coun Mark Gage, chairman of Lyme Regis Town Council's strategy and policy committee, said he welcomes the investment.

He said: “We have spent an awful lot of time working with South West Water to put pressure on them to invest in Lyme Regis in order that we can maintain our water quality and retain the excellent ratings that we have been getting in recent months.

“My only disappointment is that I would have hoped that we would get a slightly bigger share of the available funding.

“I definitely think the positive way we have met with and engaged with South West Water has helped in securing this investment for the town.”

West Dorset District Council leader Robert Gould said: “It is great news that South West Water has approved funding for work that will further improve bathing water quality at Lyme Regis.”

Travel and PR expert Doug Goodman, who lives in Lyme Regis, believes the funding is good news for the resort's tourism economy.

He said: “This must give a healthy boost to local tourism and reassure those visitors who might have been worried about the water quality in Lyme.

“Church beach is, inevitably, in a muddy state at present due to the new sea defences under construction but this is just a temporary problem.

“The factors outlined by South West Water which affect beach cleanliness - sewerage overflow, wrongly connected pipes, agricultural run-off into streams, animal fouling, etc - will hopefully be eliminated under their new plans.”

The town council said it would continue to tackle these other sources.

Coun Gage said: “This is a very positive step but as a town council we will continue to work with and put pressure on South West Water to maintain the level of investment.”

South West Water chief executive Chris Loughlin said: “Investing now in our network and treatment works protecting bathing water quality will help minimise the risk of these vital beaches losing their status and serious knock-on damage to the region's number one industry - tourism.”