A HOTEL in Berrynarbor has been granted a licence to use a new waste water treatment plant.

The Environment Agency has given permission to Sandy Cove Hotel to use the new treatment plant, which discharges secondary treated sewage onto a cliff area overlooking Combe Martin Bay.

The hotel has relied on a septic tank for 27 years but it now has approval to use this upgraded system.

When the hotel application was originally made there was concern among Combe Martin parish councillors about the possible impact on nearby beaches.

But the Environment Agency has now written to Combe Martin Parish Council explaining that the application from Sandy Cove Hotel would have no effect on the public bathing area in Combe Martin.

In the letter Ryan Plant, from the water quality permitting team at the Environment Agency, said: "A package treatment plant provides a much higher level of treatment than a septic tank so the standard of effluent has improved.

"The outfall from the treatment plant does not discharge directly to the sea but discharges onto the ground within a very steep and inaccessible cliff woodland.

"Some of the effluent will be taken up by the vegetation on the cliff, some will percolate into the ground subsequently ending up in the sea and a small amount may discharge into the sea.

"The impact of this discharge on the bathing water was assessed assuming the maximum discharge volume reaches the sea without any extra treatment provided by the land at the discharge site.

"Analysis by our tidal team has shown that this discharge can not impact on water quality at Combe Martin Bay."

Mr Plant said the most likely cause of pollution in Combe Martin Bay came from the River Umber.

Hotel owners Gerrit and Dawn ten-Bokkel said this week: "We are very pleased that the licence to discharge has been granted for Sandy Cove Hotel. People seem to have had the wrong impression about our sewage treatment works.

"It has been fitted to make an improvement to the quality of fluid previously discharged. We have had expert advice on which sewerage treatment works to fit and have spent over £20,000 fitting it to improve the quality of discharged water; this has not been the general understanding of people. This has been done to try and help the environment."