Dozens of new wild swimming spots in England are being designated as bathing waters ahead of the summer and will benefit from regular water quality monitoring, the Government has announced.
A total of 27 new bathing water sites will be designated ahead of the 2024 bathing water season, which runs between Wednesday 15 May and Thursday 30 September, which is when the monitoring will take place.
This is the largest number of new designations in a year and takes the total number of bathing waters to 451 across England.
Most of these are coastal, although there are some lakes and rivers – a shortfall that the new designations look to start addressing, as the new bathing waters include a dozen river sites across the country.
These include sites at the River Dart in Devon, the River Nidd in North Yorkshire, the River Frome in Somerset and River Ribble in Lancashire.
“These popular swimming spots will now undergo regular monitoring to ensure bathers have up-to-date information on the quality of the water and enable action to be taken if minimum standards aren’t being met,” said Water Minister Robbie Moore.
Campaigners and swimming groups welcomed the announcement as sites that have been given a designation in the past have typically – although not always – seen their water quality improve.
At the same time, people will be able to see for the first time how polluted the water is at those 27 sites so they can decide whether they are still happy to take a dip.
Designated Bathing Waters are the only places in the UK where bacteria levels in open water are monitored and the data published
Last year, 96 per cent of bathing waters in England met the minimum standards, with 90 per cent classified as “good” or “excellent”.
However, while the vast majority of coastal waters are of good quality, the record of rivers that have been given bath status has remained poor.
All sections of the three rivers where designations have so far been given for swimming in England were all given “poor” status in government water quality figures in December.
Those sites are based along the River Wharfe at Ilkley, Wolvercote Mill Stream in Oxfordshire and the Deben estuary at Waldringfield.
Designated bathing water sites are regularly monitored by the Environment Agency, which assesses whether action is needed to cut pollution levels and works with local communities, farmers and water companies to improve water quality.
Water is tested for two types of bacteria that can cause stomach upsets, E. coli and intestinal enterococci. These bacteria usually get into water from sewage and animal manure. Tests are carried out regularly, usually weekly.
If a Bathing Water is classified as “poor”, an “advice against bathing” symbol must be put up on site and online, along with information about pollution sources and what action is being taken to clean it up. This doesn’t mean you can’t swim – the sites remain open – but there might be an increased risk of getting ill.
“The Outdoor Swimming Society welcomes the designation of 27 bathing waters – especially so many inland places – and the positive recognition by government and landowners of swimming outdoors. This will help swimmers to assess risks,” Imogen Radford, of the Outdoor Swimming Society, told i.
The Society’s website notes: “Bathing Water designations have been hugely important in helping to clean up popular swimming spots, particularly as a result of detailed monitoring and targets being set for improvements”.
But it points out that “things could still be much better. England’s 2022 bathing water quality results would rank 25th for Excellent results out of the 30 countries that designate and monitor Bathing Waters (if the country was still in the EU), and only two EU countries have a higher percentage of Poor results.
“The UK also compares poorly in the number of designated Bathing Waters and it has far fewer inland waters and rivers,” the society adds.
Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “We welcome the new bathing water designations and the increased information and confidence this will bring for people wanting to enjoy England’s rivers and coasts.
But he said much more work still needs to be done, particularly where rivers are concerned.
“Today’s bathing water announcement is a useful toe in the water. Government will need to go much further to restore English waters to good health,” he told i.
The new designations come amid growing public anger over the state of England’s coastal waters and rivers, in particular, which suffer pollution from sewage outlets and other sources such as agricultural runoff.
The latest official data show water companies across England spilt sewage 464,056 times in 2023 while only 14 per cent of England’s rivers are classed as having good ecological status.
There are 86 designated bathing waters in Scotland, 109 in Wales and 26 in Northern Ireland. The announcement does not relate to bathing waters in these parts of the UK which are being looked at separately by devolved administrations.
The 27 new bathing water sites being designated are:
- Church Cliff Beach, Lyme Regis, Dorset
- Coastguards Beach, River Erme, Devon
- Coniston Boating Centre, Coniston Water, Cumbria
- Coniston Brown Howe, Coniston Water, Cumbria
- Derwent Water at Crow Park, Keswick, Cumbria
- Goring Beach, Worthing, West Sussex
- Littlehaven Beach, Tyne and Wear
- Manningtree Beach, Essex
- Monk Coniston, Coniston Water, Cumbria
- River Avon at Fordingbridge, Hampshire
- River Cam at Sheep’s Green, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
- River Dart Estuary at Dittisham, Devon
- River Dart Estuary at Steamer Quay, Totnes, Devon
- River Dart Estuary at Stoke Gabriel, Devon
- River Dart Estuary at Warfleet, Dartmouth, Devon
- River Frome at Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset
- River Nidd at the Lido Leisure Park in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire
- River Ribble at Edisford Bridge, Lancashire
- River Severn at Ironbridge, Shropshire
- River Severn at Shrewsbury, Shropshire
- River Stour at Sudbury, Suffolk
- River Teme at Ludlow, Shropshire
- River Tone in French Weir Park, Taunton, Somerset
- River Wharfe at Wetherby Riverside, High St, Wetherby, West Yorkshire
- Rottingdean Beach, Rottingdean, East Sussex
- Wallingford Beach, River Thames, Berkshire
- Worthing Beach House, Worthing, West Sussex
