Special status for Barry beach Watchtower Bay granted

Watch House Bay, known locally as Watchtower Bay, has been classified as a designated bathing water site.

Shared Regulatory Services (SRS), which carries out work in relation to water, air and land quality for Cardiff, Bridgend and the Vale local authority areas, applied to Welsh Government for the location to be given the status.

Between May and September last year, the SRS Environment Team collaborated the Waders to gather the necessary evidence needed for Watch House Bay’s application.

This included documenting the number of people using the beach during the bathing water season (May to October) to prove the popularity of the beach to Welsh Government.

Following the application, earlier this year Welsh Government ran an online consultation asking visitors to the beach, which is located between Barry Old Harbour and The Knap, what they thought about the possibility of it becoming a designated bathing beach.

As a result of the successful application, Watch House Bay will now be added to the list of designated bathing waters in the Vale alongside Whitmore Bay, Jackson’s Bay, The Cold Knap, Penarth, Dunraven Bay and Col Huw Beach in Llantwit Major.

Watchtower Bay will now have its waters routinely tested

The famous Watch Tower waders helped VOG council achieve the special statust granted by the Welsh Government

A successful application was also made by St Brides Community Council to designate Ogmore-by-Sea beach as a designated bathing area as well.

Cllr Ruba Sivagnanam, cabinet member for community engagement, equalities and regulatory services, said beaches are important to the people of the Vale.

“We are proud of our beaches in the Vale and want as many people as possible to enjoy them,” said Cllr Sivagnanam.

“We hope that with the addition of Watch House Bay and Ogmore-by-Sea to our current list of designated bathing waters, it will attract even more visitors and to our seashores, which in turn will provide them with clean waters to swim for their health and wellbeing.

“As we head towards summer, we hope that the newly designated bathing waters will bring more people to the Vale’s coastline to enjoy our spectacular beaches, as well as benefitting many local businesses across the county.”

Now that the beaches have this special status they will be included in Natural Resources Wales’ (NRW) monitoring programme and the water will be routinely tested each year for 20 weeks from mid-May, then be assigned a classification for water quality, from excellent to poor.