Sewage has been dumped hundreds of times at bathing sites this summer, making much of Britain’s waters potentially unsafe to swim in during one of the hottest, driest summers on record.
Since the start of the official bathing season on 15 May, the charity Surfers Against Sewage has recorded 764 sewage alerts at 244 bathing spots in England and Wales.
This means 43 per cent of the 573 bathing spots in England and Wales have had sewage warnings so far this year. The bathing season ends on 30 September this year.
Sewage alerts are triggered when real-time water company data shows a firm is dumping sewage or when Environment Agency modelling triggers a warning of pollution, typically after heavy rainfall.
Spittal Beach in Northumberland had the highest number of alerts, with 11 warnings in total, followed by Sandy Gap Beach and Biggar Bank Beach on Cumbria’s Walney Island, both of which triggered 10 alerts since May.
