East Runton surfer's pledge to end sewage pollution at beach

His surfboard protest, which hung from a clifftop fence, was in response to East Runton beach losing its Blue Flag status after a drop in water quality.

But now the beach is on course to getting its Blue Flag back after its water quality was recently upgraded to ‘excellent’ by the Environment Agency.

“It’s great news that they’ve retested East Runton beach and the water quality is now excellent again,” the 46-year-old surfer from Holt said.

“Now it should get its Blue Flag back.”

READ MORE: Norfolk beach on course to get Blue Flag back as water quality improves

Darren Veal, right, with Robert Brownsell, a fisherman and one of the pioneers of surfing in East (Image: Supplied)

Sea Palling and Mundesley also lost their Blue Flags, but the Environment Agency recently said sewage spills by water companies were not to blame for Norfolk’s losses.

Instead, it claims the most likely causes of contamination were bacteria from animals and birds, and high tides and bad weather stirring up bacteria from the seabed.

However, there were more than 300,000 combined sewage overflows into waterways across the UK last year – an average of 824 a day – and Mr Veal said his sign will be making a return to the beach next year.

READ MORE: Surfer forced to move board with sewage protest message

Darren Veal with the surfboard protest (Image: Darren Veal)

“Until the water companies guarantee the water coming out of overflows is clean I’ll keep this board up for as long as it takes,” he said.

“I want to keep the water clean for my children, grandchildren and future generations so they’re not swimming in dirty water.

“East Runton is the premier surfing beach in north Norfolk, but it’s not as attractive if people find out it’s polluted - they’ll just drive straight past to Cromer.

“I hold East Runton close to my heart because it’s where I learnt to surf when I was 13.

"I’m not an activist - I just love the place and want to protect it.”