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 has today (April 10) 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.
The Environment Agency regularly monitors water quality at
designated bathing water sites and assesses whether action is
needed to cut pollution levels, working with local communities,
farmers and water companies to improve water quality at these
locations.
Over the past decade, we have made good progress in improving
bathing water quality at existing sites, thanks to robust
regulation and strong investment. Since 2010, the proportion of
bathing waters assessed as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ has increased
from 76% to 93%. Meanwhile, 72% are considered ‘excellent’ - up
from just 51% in 2010. This is the highest level ever, despite
the classification standards for bathing waters having been made
more stringent in 2015.
Today’s announcement follows on from the Plan for Water, launched by
the government last week, which sets out the action being taken
by government to clean up our waters and ensure a plentiful
supply into the future.
It also follows the government’s Environmental Improvement
Plan, published earlier this year, which includes
a target for everyone to live within a 15-minute walk from
nature, such as bathing waters.
Water Minister 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.
This government has taken significant action in recent years to
protect and improve the quality of water at designated bathing
water sites at our rivers, lakes and coastal waters. This
includes:
- Setting strict new targets on water companies – designed to
frontload action in important areas such as bathing waters – as
part of our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. This
requires water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure
programme in water company history - £56 billion capital
investment over 25 years
- Increasing monitoring of discharges from approximately 5% in
2016, to nearly 90% in 2021. This will reach 100% cover by end of
this year. Through the Environment Act, water companies are being
required to make near real-time data on storm overflow discharges
publicly available
- Working with the farming community and regulators to reduce
nutrient pollution from agriculture through our future farming
reforms. The government has also increased the Environment
Agency’s capacity to conduct farm inspections, with the target of
conducting 4,000 a year, and doubled the funding for Catchment
Sensitive Farming
- Setting record levels of fines for water companies who break
the law. Since 2015 the Environment Agency has secured fines of
over £144m. The government is making it easier and quicker for
regulators to enforce penalties and hold companies to account.
Fines and penalties handed out to water companies will also be
invested in schemes that benefit the environment.
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