New swimming spots rated poor for water quality

Two of five newly designated official swimming spots in Devon failed to meet water quality standards, figures have revealed.

Steamer Quay on the River Dart and Coastguards Beach on the River Erme were graded poor, external for water quality in 2024.

The remaining three, Stoke Gabriel, Dittisham and Warfleet on the Dart, were graded sufficient, good and excellent, the other three classifications.

The five sites were designated in May, meaning they are tested every week during the summer by the Environment Agency.

The only other site rated poor in Devon and Cornwall was Porthluney near St Austell.

The Environment Agency's monitoring of designated bathing waters during the official swimming season between May and September showed 8.2% of bathing waters, some 37 sites, were rated "poor" for water quality in 2024.

Out of 450 English bathing waters regularly tested for harmful bacteria, 91.8% met at least the minimum standards for clean water, while 64.2% reached excellent standards, the figures showed.

The proportion of sites failing to meet minimum standards in water quality and being rated as poor as a result nearly doubled from 4.3% last year.

The figure is the highest since the current rating system was introduced in 2015, while the percentage of good and excellent sites has fallen slightly.

Officials said this was in part due to the existing water quality of 27 new bathing sites designated at the start of the season, 18 of which were rated poor in their first year of testing.

The figures come amid a consultation on a shake-up of the system, including removing the fixed summer season to account for the rising trend in cold water swimming.

Giles Bristow, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, said the bathing water classification regime "isn't just inadequate, it's misleading and needs radical reform".

He suggested Trevaunance Cove in Cornwall, which received an excellent rating in this year's results, had consistently high levels of pollution in a stream running on a beach during community testing.

Mr Bristow urged: "The consultation to reform the regulations is vital and must deliver a year-round bathing season, with year-round testing.

"We need multiple monitoring points and testing for a wide range of pollutants."

River Action chief executive James Wallace said the results were an "international embarrassment".

He said: "The government's own data shows that swimming in our inland bathing sites poses serious health risks, highlighting the failure of regulators to protect waterways from polluters."

Water Minister Emma Hardy said: "These figures are unacceptable and show that too many of our popular swimming spots are polluted."

She said the government was putting water companies under special measures through the Water Bill, which would strengthen regulation of the industry, and has launched a major review of the water sector.

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