Have your say on bathing waters

Respond to DEFRA’s consultation on bathing waters by 23 December

In May this year, the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs announced the designation of 27 new bathing sites in England, including 12 in rivers. Many of these resulted from local campaign groups compiling the necessary data and submitting applications.

Shortly after this, DEFRA announced it would no longer accept new applications, disappointing many other campaign groups that had been planning to submit applications in October 2024. Their website currently states they expect to begin accepting applications again in spring 2025.

In the meantime, DEFRA is consulting on potential reforms to the Bathing Water Regulations in England and Wales. Their proposed reforms include the following:

• Expanding the definition of bathers to include other water users (in the previous application process, only people swimming could be counted)
• Removing fixed bathing season dates (recognising that outdoor swimming happens outside of the May to September period currently covered but not necessarily moving to year-round monitoring).
• Testing in multiple locations rather than a single point.
• Removing the automatic de-designation if a site is classified as “Poor” for five years.
• Introducing a new barrier to designation by assessing the feasibility of improving the water quality to at least “sufficient”.

The charity Surfers Against Sewage is running a campaign to encourage and support community groups apply for bathing water status and has been closely following DEFRA’s communications. They welcome the consultation but note the reforms don’t go far enough. In a press release, they say they broadly welcome the first four proposals but are opposed to the fifth. They also note some “glaring omissions”. In particular, there is nothing in the consultation on chemical and other emerging pollutants, which can be harmful to both river and human health. They also note that the current regime allows the Environment Agency to ignore up to 15% of samples and short term pollution events, which undermines the reliability of the water quality ratings.

The consultation takes about 15 to 20 minutes to respond to and includes space to provide additional comments and information. Although it doesn’t ask for it specifically, there is space to provide broader feedback on the bathing water application process. For example, in the process that was in place in 2023, there was a requirement to provide evidence of nearby public toilets, which rules out many popular wild swimming spots.

Respond to the survey

If you’re not sure how to respond or want more information, Surfers Against Sewage provide more information on their website are hosting a webinar on Tuesday 3 December at 6pm.

Read the SAS demands for Bathing Water Reform

Register for the SAS Bathing Water Reform webinar