Hi all,
Just to stir the Sh.. thought I would add my bit

Whilst it doesn't help those who sail on the sea, for those sailing on the lake it should be remembered that you have a contract with the council under the "sale of goods and services act 1982" either as a day or annual licence.

Part of the implied terms in that contract is that the council should ensure that they provide a safe environment ie maintain a safe water quality.
As they don't monitor the lake between September and May they may not be able to provide evidence that the water quality is safe???

A word of caution, if they receive lots of complaints about the water quality they may just deceide to shut the lake as they may not be able to do anything to improve the water quality as that is up to the Environment Agency and United Utilities

If you read the terms of the licence it states the council has a right to close the lake at any time WITHOUT the requirement to provide any refund, so be careful if you complain!!!

Steve

marmite, you make a good point, but I think Wirral Council would be foolish to go down that route. These days no-one wants to send out the message that the facility is unsafe.That would go for the beach as well. Even if they monitor the water in the summer months, once they've said they can't guarantee safety, people won't go there. Far better they contact united utilities and come to an agreement to sort this out. Maybe raise a campaign via SAS. It's a good job it's Wirral and not Sefton, who seem to hate windsurfers. I think they'd definitely ban access.

Surfers Against Sewage monitor incidents of sickness and water pollution:

http://www.sas.org.uk/campaign/sewage_and_sickness/protecting_your_health.php

http://www.sas.org.uk/pr/2009/pollution-incident-report-1.php


This also explains about environment agency water sampling:

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/37841.aspx