Inverness and Nairn Lib Dem candidate Neil Alexander says invite to First Minister John Swinney to swim at Nairn Beach to highlight concerns over sewage pollution has been declined
An invite extended by a Nairn Holyrood hopeful to the First Minister to come and swim at Nairn Beach in a bid to highlight concerns over bathing waters pollution has been declined.
Last month Lib Dem candidate for Inverness and Nairn, Neil Alexander, sent a letter letter to John Swinney inviting him to take a plunge in Nairn, amidst concerns over the dumping of sewage in the Moray Firth.
This came after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the candidate showed that more than a billion litres of wastewater was discharged into Highland waters last year — including more than 200 million litres near Nairn golf course.
A protest organised by Nairn Surfers Against Sewage also took place in May 2025 calling for better monitoring of sewage overflows in Scotland.
However the invite was turned down in a response sent by Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, Gillian Martin, whose remit includes the water industry in Scotland.
In her reply she stated that Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) classifies 66 per cent in good or better ecological condition, with SEPA classifying 87 per cent of Scotland’s water environment as having ‘good’ water quality and last year 97 per cent of Scotland’s bathing waters passed stringent environmental standards.
She wrote: “The Scottish Government takes the issue of pollution incidents very seriously and recognises that any sewage pollution is unsightly and can have negative implications for public health and the environment.
“However, it is not accurate to characterise the operation of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) as sewage dumping and it is not the case that overflows will always cause pollution incidents.
“CSOs are an integral part of a sewage network, designed to allow highly-diluted wastewater to overflow to the environment to avoid overloading the sewer system and causing it to back up and flood homes and businesses during periods of intense rainfall. Normally, what overflows is wastewater which has been highly diluted by rainwater - the toilet sewage element is typically less than 1 per cent of the total volume. CSOs must be licensed by the independent regulator, SEPA, and any unsatisfactory discharges will be identified so that Scottish Water can invest to reduce the environmental impact.”
She said that the data reported for Nairn Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) is for a settled storm sewage overflow, meaning that discharges have been screened and have received primary treatment.
“I can confirm that rather than permanent monitoring at all CSOs, Scottish Water has already carried out comprehensive modelling, in partnership with SEPA, to assess the impacts of its assets on water quality during the 2015 to 2021 investment period,” she continued.
“Specifically in relation to Nairn, following the adoption of the revised Bathing Water Directive in Scotland, SEPA convened a stakeholder group to coordinate actions to improve bathing water quality. Scottish Water completed a bathing water study and made a number of improvements to its assets at the time - this is reflected in both Nairn Central and Nairn East being rated 'good' since 2021. Furthermore, Scottish Water has recently invested at both Arderseir and Forres WwTW to improve capacity and protect the marine environment of the Moray Firth.
“I can also re-assure residents that Scottish Water has made significant progress in reducing environmental pollution incidents over the last decade. Incidents have reduced by 70% - from 800 each year to fewer than 200 - in spite of increasingly challenging weather patterns.
“Given the historical and on-going investment by Scottish Water, and the fact that the bathing waters at Nairn are rated good, I do not think a meeting would be beneficial at this time.
The Scottish Lib Dems are currently calling for a new Clean Water Scotland Act, seeking an update of Scotland’s sewage network, monitoring and publication for every sewage dump and the introduction of binding targets for their reduction, a blue flag system for Scotland’s rivers and a complete ban on the release of sewage in protected areas such as bathing waters.
Neil Alexander, the Lib Dem candidate for Inverness and Nairn, responded: “The fact that the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action are refusing to meet with concerned residents just proves that they are turning a blind eye to the people of Inverness and Nairn, and refusing to admit there are ongoing problems with our outdated sewage network
“Last year the Highlands reached over 1bn litres of sewage dumped for the first time, and that’s with around only half of the overflow sites monitored, and the government cannot even commit to making changes so that residents will know the full scale of the problem
“Whilst there are similar problems south of the border, at least the vast majority of overflow sites have monitoring in place.”