06 Dec 2022

97.1% of bathing waters in England have passed water quality standards following testing at over 400 designated sites carried out by the Environment Agency (EA). The results show that for the 2022 bathing season, 72.1% of beaches and inland waters met the ‘Excellent’ standard, the highest since new stringent standards were introduced in 2015. 92.8% of […]

15 Feb 2022

An area of the River Thames in Oxford and a coastal area in the Isle of Wight have been put forward for bathing water status. Two popular swimming areas in the Isle of Wight and the River Thames in Oxford could become new bathing water sites under plans set out in consultations. Designated bathing waters are coastal or inland […]

03 Mar 2021

The water company is working in partnership with local landowners, North Devon Biosphere Foundation, the Environment Agency, the Woodland Trust and Natural England’s Catchment Sensitive Farming Partnership to identify areas where tree planting, hedging and fencing can help protect the River Umber from bacteriological contamination. The River Umber flows into the sea at Combe Martin […]

12 Jan 2021

More than 100 MPs from across different parties are supporting a parliamentary bid to stop water companies discharging untreated sewage into rivers. Philip Dunne, the Conservative chair of the environmental audit committee, is seeking in a private member’s bill to place a duty on water companies to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged into rivers […]

05 Jan 2021

The government has published its response to the recent consultation on the designation of an area of the River Wharfe, Ilkley as a bathing water. In short……. We received 1,073 individual responses to this consultation. 998 supported the proposal and 75 were opposed. Following consideration of these responses, the area of the River Wharfe in […]

29 May 2018

The European Environment Agency (EEA) reports that 85% of swimming sites across Europe monitored in 2017 met the European Union’s highest and most stringent ‘excellent’ quality standards for waters mostly free from pollutants. The results give a good indication where holiday makers can find the best quality bathing waters this summer. Nearly all 21.801 bathing […]