CONCERNS that Burnham’s beaches could face a swimming ban under tough EU rules are to be raised by Environment Secretary Liz Truss.

She made the promise during a visit to the town where she also spoke about the need to support rural tourism.

Burnham Chamber of Trade has expressed fears that Burnham’s beaches might fall foul of EU seawater regulations which could affect summer tourism.

During her visit, the Minister toured the town with James Heappey, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Burnham. Ms Truss said: “It is a fantastic town and it’s really good to see what’s on offer.

“I’ll go back to the office and discuss this issue with the Environment Agency so we can work together on a good plan for the future.”

During her visit, the Minister also pledged to support tourism in Somerset after it was claimed this had been badly affected following last year’s flooding.

Ms Truss said: “Rural tourism is worth £30 billion, so it is a really important industry. “I think food and drink is vital for tourism and a growing interest and Somerset has a fantastic food industry, and of course, cider industry.

“One of the things I have been discussing with Visit Somerset is ‘how do we link these better?’.

“We do have the rural development programme and I know Visit Somerset has made an application through that. The Leader programme is one way, and we are doing work to promote local food and producers should take the opportunity to go for Protected Designation of Origin and Protected Geographic Indication to get recognition for the area.”

John Turner, chief executive officer of Visit Somerset, the county tourism organisation, told the Secretary of State that the county’s £1.3billion tourism industry is still suffering from the public’s perception of the county after the floods and said he hoped Government could give “one-off” financial help for a marketing campaign.

Mr Turner said: “It is great news that infrastructure improvements are now in place, however we have to also think about the longer-termdamage around perception and what the lasting effects of that are and how we factor for that over the long term through better marketing communications with national support.”