20 Mar 2025
The government has announced reforms which it says will modernise “outdated” regulations around bathing water quality, and will “keep pace with Britain’s love of swimming”. The system for monitoring the more than 550 designated, outdoor, swimming sites in England and Wales will be updated for the first time since 2013 following a public consultation. The […]
29 May 2024
Interesting piece in The Guardian highlighting a multiple approach to cleaning up the Seine in time for triathlon events at this summer’s Olympic Games. Approaches include Improving the performance of wastewater facilities Modernising the sewage system in order to separate rainwater and wastewater in a more systematic way Correct misconnections to the system, in which […]
28 Feb 2024
The Government is consulting on the largest ever rollout of new bathing water sites. The short consultation closes on 10 March. Subject to the consultation, the Environment Agency will create 27 new designated swimming spots across England. If designated, sites will receive regular water monitoring from the Environment Agency, who will investigate pollution sources and […]
22 Nov 2023
The majority of popular inland bathing spots in England have been found to be unsafe for swimming, according to a report by Surfers Against Sewage. In a survey of a representative sample of popular swimming and water sports locations, 60% were found to have pollution at unsafe levels, the annual report from the campaign group said. Forty […]
12 Dec 2021
MARINET (www.marinet.org.uk) has free copies available of its publication, Sand, Sea and Sewage. This is an in-depth study of the application by of the Bathing Water Regulations since 2015, with recommendations for eliminating sewage pollution to rivers and coastal waters along with a history of campaigning on these issues since the introduction of the UK […]
08 Jun 2021
The headline in the Guardian was clear ‘the UK ranked last in Europe for bathing water quality in 2020’. The European Environment Agency report put UK at the bottom of its list of reporting countries. However, as Defra & Water UK were quick to point out Covid limited the ability of UK to complete the […]
19 Aug 2020
Phil Bremner, Business Synergies ‘As you will have seen from previous Editor’s Comments I have been supportive of the efforts of the Ilkley Clean River Campaign’s to obtain bathing water status for the River Ilkley in West Yorkshire. No UK river has designated bathing water status while Germany has 38, Italy 73 and France 573, just 14% of Britain’s rivers […]
16 Jun 2020
Response to the European Environment Agency’s bathing water assessment Guardian: Only two-thirds of UK bathing waters rated excellent in EU survey Defra ‘Today there has been coverage in the Guardian, the Times, Daily Mirror and water trade publications of the European Environment Agency (EEA) annual assessment of bathing waters across Europe. In the assessment, the EEA […]
