In England and Wales, bathing water quality is assessed and classified to inform the public about the safety of swimming and other recreational activities in designated waters. This classification system is governed by the Bathing Water Regulations 2013, which implement the EU Bathing Water Directive 2006/7/EC into UK law .
Classification Categories
Bathing waters are categorised based on the levels of two types of bacteria: Escherichia coli (E. coli) and intestinal enterococci. These bacteria indicate fecal contamination, which can pose health risks to bathers. The classifications are determined using data collected during the bathing season (15 May to 30 September) over the previous four years .
The four classification categories are:
• Excellent: Indicates the highest, cleanest water quality.
• Good: Generally good water quality.
• Sufficient: Meets the minimum standard for bathing water quality.
• Poor: Fails to meet the minimum standard. At sites classified as Poor, signs advising against bathing are displayed, although the beach remains open for other activities .
Monitoring and Data Collection
The Environment Agency (EA) in England and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) in Wales are responsible for monitoring designated bathing waters. They collect and analyze water samples for the presence of E. coli and intestinal enterococci throughout the bathing season. These samples help determine the annual classification of each site .
Classification Imagery
The Environment Agency uses a zero to three star rating system, with Poor being zero stars and Excellent being three stars.
However, here at Beach Finder HQ we feel that the imagery used is confusing, and possibly deliberately misleading, as it does not indicate the range of stars that could be awarded, and every badge uses the same navy blue colour.
Each bathing water will display an information board with the awarded rating displayed. However, we feel if you saw a badge that looked like this:
you might be mistaken for thinking “Great, this place got a special star award for swimming water!” - whereas, in reality, this equates to a Sufficient rating - which is the bare minimum for safe swimming.
Instead of using the Environment Agency rating images, we at Beach Finder have instead come up with our own variation, which we think better reflects the actual rating that was awarded:
Not only do we show that the potential star rating is out of three, we also colour code the image:
- Blue - The colour of clean water. This is one of the best places to swim!
- Green - A positive colour, you can be assured this is a good place to swim.
- Brown - Like Amber, only darker and more dubious. The colour of - well - you know what. Uh oh. This is probably not a great place to swim. If you do, try not to swallow any water!
- Red - Danger! This is probably best avoided
- Grey - for unclassified locations. You’re probably best avoiding these places altogether, as there isn’t sufficient data to make a classification.
We really hope these icons provide more clarity than the official Environment Agency ones.
Happy swimming.