UK

List of English bathing sites failing water quality standards in 2024

The number of bathing waters rated poor jumped as a series of newly designated sites were monitored for the first time.

Pre-dawn swimmers at Cullercoats, Tynemouth
Pre-dawn swimmers at Cullercoats, Tynemouth (Owen Humphreys/PA)
By Emily Beament, PA Environment Correspondent

New figures show one in 12 English bathing waters failed water quality testing and were rated “poor” this year, around 8% of all those monitored.

They account for 4.5% of beaches, rivers and lakes that were already designated as official bathing sites before the 2024 season, and 18 of the 27 sites newly designated this year (67%), which had not been previously sampled or managed as bathing waters.

Here is a full list of the 37 bathing sites which were rated poor in the 2024 assessment:

Tynemouth Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear

Littlehaven Beach, Tyne and Wear (new designation)

Join the Irish News Whatsapp channel

Scarborough South Bay, North Yorkshire

Bridlington South Beach, East Riding of Yorkshire

Wharfe at Cromwheel, Ilkley, West Yorkshire

Nidd at the Lido, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire (new designation)

Wharfe at Wilderness Carpark, West Yorkshire (new designation)

Heacham, Norfolk

Sheep’s Green, River Cam, Cambridgeshire (new designation)

Wolvercote Mill Stream, Oxfordshire

Wallingford Beach, River Thames, Oxfordshire (new designation)

Deal Castle, Kent

Dymchurch, Kent

Littlestone, Kent

Worthing Beach House, West Sussex (new designation)

Bognor Regis (Aldwick), West Sussex

Southsea East, Hampshire

River Avon at Fordingbridge, Hampshire (new designation)

Lyme Regis Church Cliff Beach, Dorset (new designation)

Steamer Quay, Dart Estuary, Devon (new designation)

Coastguards Beach, Erme Estuary, Devon (new designation)

Porthluney, Cornwall

Dunster Beach, Somerset

Blue Anchor West, Somerset

River Tone at French Weir Park, Somerset (new designation)

Weston-super-Mare Uphill Slipway, North Somerset

Weston Main, North Somerset

Weston-super-Mare Sand Bay, North Somerset

River Frome at Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset (new designation)

River Teme in Ludlow, Shropshire (new designation)

River Severn at Ironbridge, Shropshire (new designation)

River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire (new designation)

St Annes North, Lancashire

Blackpool North, Lancashire

Coniston Water, Boating Centre, Cumbria (new designation)

Derwent Water at Crow Park, Cumbria (new designation)

River Ribble at Edisford Bridge, Lancashire (new designation)