By Martin Jeffries

mjeffries@thekmgroup.co.uk

Officials have dismissed as "scaremongering" calls for five of Thanet's Blue Flag beaches to be stripped of the prestigious award.

Surfers Against Sewage last week claimed the tourist hot spots failed to provide adequate sewage warning systems.

The environmental campaign group said the beaches - namely the Main Sands in Margate and Ramsgate, West Bay in Westgate and Botany Bay and Joss Bay in Broadstairs - do not request real time information on discharges from combined sewage overflows (CSOs), so cannot pass this information on to beachgoers.

But Thanet council said the claims were made "without any actual knowledge of the real position in the area" and insisted the final discharge point for treated clean water is around two kilometres from the coastline.

"The combination of this distance, the currents and tides make the impact [of CSO discharges] on our coast vanishingly small, even if there was a problem," a spokesman said.

"The claims made by Surfers Against Sewage are based on an assumption that a hazard exists.

"This is not the case in Thanet and our beaches comply fully with the requirements of the Blue Flag.

"We would like to assure people that the Blue Flags we have been awarded for our beaches and bays are fully merited and are in no way affected by the scaremongering by Surfers Against Sewage.

"Our beaches are wonderful and have excellent water quality."

The local authority said that an £80 million upgrade of wastewater treatment systems in Thanet by Southern Water has helped ensure that discharges do not affect bathing water quality.

It explained that all of the area's main resorts are tested on a weekly basis and that most receive consistently top ratings.

The spokesman added: "Water quality can be affected slightly during periods of very heavy rainfall because of water run off from roads, footpaths and other surfaces.

"This is picked up by the weekly tests and we provide advice about this on our beach notice boards.

"However, this has nothing to do sewage and the issues surrounding CSOs."

Keep Britain Tidy, which administers the Blue Flag scheme in England, is investigating the claims made by Surfers Against Sewage on Friday.

A spokesman said: "We take the issue of combined sewage overflow spills seriously and if we find that standards are not being met we will take appropriate action, even if that means removing the Blue Flag."