Bathing water quality at some of England’s highest-rated beaches can decline sharply during the autumn and winter months, according to an internal Environment Agency (EA) study completed earlier this year, seen by Unearthed.
Each year, designated swimming spots are sampled for bacteria between mid-May and late-September. Based on these summertime tests, each swimming spot is given a rating of ‘excellent’, ‘good’, ‘sufficient’ or ‘poor’. However, the EA study found that between October and March there were much-higher levels of E coli and Intestinal Enterococci at three out of the six beaches in the trial.
The levels found suggested these beaches had bathing water quality last winter that was at least two ratings lower than their official classification. Academics and campaigners told Unearthed the study demonstrated the need for the UK to move to all-year monitoring of bathing water quality.