Portobello bathers in the shade at seaside

A BRAND new electronic sign designed to tell bathers when the water is safe has gone on the blink during some of the best weather of the year.

Technical glitches have meant that a 22,000 sign installed on Portobello Promenade by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has been out of action for several days.

And to make matters worse the breakdown has co-incided with huge crowds out on Portobello beach.

The electronic message system was installed about six weeks ago. The equipment was working perfectly over the weekend, when the heavy rainfall meant the bathing water was "unsuitable" because of the risk of sewage overflows caused by flooding.

But over the last few days, when Portobello beach has been mobbed with visitors, the sign has been blank.

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John Cropley, owner of the Forth View Bar, said the failure of the sign - which sits just outside his bar - was "frustrating".

"They installed it about six weeks ago and they had to dig up the road and then dig up the pavement to install the sign, so it has caused a lot of disruption," he said.

"It wouldn't be a problem, but then on what has been one of the busiest days of the year at the beach, when people are looking for information about bathing water quality, the thing isn't working.

"It's just been blank. What's even more frustrating is that it was working fine over the weekend, flashing up that the water quality was unsuitable for bathing - when it was raining so hard no-one was on the beach."

The electronic warning system for bathing water was first trialled in 2005 and the first sign was put up on Portobello East that year.

This latest sign - at Portobello West - was one of 12 additional monitors installed across Scotland for the 2011 bathing water season.

The 22,000 cost is a one-off to cover the sign and the installation of the equipment.

A spokeswoman for Sepa said: "As a new installation, the Portobello West sign is currently undergoing user system testing to iron out any remaining software glitches, but the predicted water quality for Portobello West is also available on Sepa's website at www.sepa.org.uk/water/bathing_waters/bathing_water_signage.aspx"