Majority of North East bathing waters rated Good or Excellent in latest report
by Emily Gray · ChronicleLiveA total 94% of bathing waters in the North East have been rated Good or Excellent, new annual figures released today show.
The 2024 statistics on English coastal and inland bathing waters follow testing by the Environment Agency at 450 sites regularly used by swimmers throughout the summer, including 27 new sites designated earlier this year.
These tests monitor for sources of pollution known to be a risk to bathers’ health, specifically E. coli and intestinal enterococci.
Yet despite significant improvement since the 1990s, when just 28% were rated as 'good' or 'excellent', today’s results make clear that more still needs to be done to improve their quality for people and the environment.
The proportion of 'good' and 'excellent'-rated sites has fallen slightly, in part due to the existing water quality of the 27 new bathing water sites, designated across England this year, 18 of which are classified as 'poor'.
This is not unexpected, as the new sites have not been managed for bathing before, and it takes time to understand and tackle the sources of pollution affecting them. Without the newly designated bathing waters, 95% of sites nationally would meet minimum standards this year, only slightly down from 96% last year.
Jamie Fletcher, deputy director for the Environment Agency in the North East said: "The long-term trend for bathing water quality in the North East remains positive this year with 94% achieving Good or Excellent.
"However, there is still much more to be done to ensure cleaner and healthier waters for people to enjoy. Action plans are in place for poor and sufficient waters to investigate the causes and identify the right action to support improvements.
"We are disappointed to see deteriorations at Cullercoats and Seaburn and sadly, our newly designated bathing water at Littlehaven, within the mouth of the Tyne estuary, has also failed to meet the minimum standard required under the regulations.
"This makes us even more committed to working with key partners and water companies to improve water quality at these important destinations."
The results follow the launch on November 12 of a Government consultation on proposed reforms to bathing water regulations to ensure a more flexible approach to designation and monitoring. This includes assessing water quality and the feasibility of improvement at a site prior to designation.
Wider measures to improve water quality carried out by the Environment Agency include driving up monitoring of water companies with new flow monitors installed on more than 2,000 wastewater treatment works and 100% of storm overflows now monitored. Water company inspections are set to be increased to 4,000 by the end of March 2025, 10,000 in 2025/6 and 11,500 in 2026/27.
The Environment Agency is also carrying out the largest ever criminal investigation into potential widespread non-compliance by water companies. Since 2015 they have concluded 63 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies securing fines of over £151 million.
The Environment Agency is changing its approach to regulation of the water industry - by investing £15 million in enhancing digital systems and tools, and recruiting 500 additional staff including environment officers, data analysts, enforcement specialists and technical experts.
The recently launched Water Hub has been designed to help people get access to information on data and guidance on water in one place.
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