Four swimming spots in England are being designated as bathing waters ahead of the warmer months and will soon benefit from regular water quality monitoring, Water Minister Rebecca Pow has announced.
Following a two-week public consultation, Sykes Lane Bathing Beach and Whitwell Creek at Rutland Water, Firestone Bay in Plymouth, and a section of the River Deben at Waldringfield, Suffolk, will all be officially designated ahead of the 2023 bathing water season. The four new sites will take the total number of bathing waters across the country to 424, the highest number ever.
Water Minister Rebecca Pow said:
“These popular swimming spots will now undergo regular monitoring, starting this May, so bathers have up-to-date information on the quality of the water.
“The regular monitoring also means that action can be taken if minimum standards aren’t being met.
“We now have more bathing waters than ever, and we’ve worked hard in recent years to boost their status – with an incredible 93% now classed as good or excellent – and our new Plan for Water will help us go further and faster on our targets.”
The Environment Agency will regularly take samples at the newly designated sites during the bathing season – which runs between 15 May and 30 September.
When selecting new sites, Defra considers how many people bathe there, if the site has suitable infrastructure and facilities, such as toilets, and where investment in water quality improvements following designation would have the most impact. All applications are assessed against these factors and only those that meet these factors are taken forward to public consultation.
