Brits planning UK holidays this summer may want to take note of a new ranking of Britain's cleanest and dirtiest beaches.
Treyarnon Bay in Cornwall has placed at the top of the clean list in new analysis which orders destinations by E. coli amount in the water. (The Cornish spot was found to have an E. coli count of 50).
The bacteria is produced in the intestines of humans and its presence can be a sign that sewage has been dumped in an area.
The second cleanest beach is Shell Bay, Dorset scoring just 51, and in the third spot is Kimmeridge Bay, also in Dorset, with a score of 53.
Treyarnon Bay wasn't the only spot in Cornwall to impress; in fact, the popular staycation spot is home to five of the top 10 cleanest beaches, according to analysis of 425 beaches by businesswaste.co.uk.
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Those wanting to avoid E. coli - which can cause diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever, and sometimes vomiting - may be best suited to skip St Anne's Beach in Lancashire.
The study found that the beach had 86 times more of the bacteria than Treyarnon Bay, with 4,338 parts of E. coli.
On May 17, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs released a ‘pollution risk warning’ for St Anne's when United Utilities pumped sewage into the sea to prevent flooding - two weeks after a further two sewage spills.
The governmental body has said that those taking a trip to the beach this summer should not be too concerned.
“We would like to reassure concerned members of the public that the coastal bathing waters in St Anne's meet bathing water quality standards," a spokesperson for the Environment Agency said.
"Recently published data widely circulated by Business Waste does not give a realistic picture of bathing water quality.
"The data does not use the formally adopted method for rating the quality of bathing waters in England and the rankings published by Business Waste should be treated with caution.
“In 2021, 99 per cent of bathing waters met the minimum standard of Sufficient, with 94.7 per cent meeting the highest standards of ‘good’ and ‘excellent’.”
The data paints a slightly less rosy picture.
A study released last month found that in 2021 water companies released raw sewage into all coastal waters and rivers in England for more than 2.7m hours.
The Lib Dems said earlier this month that in the same year the country's water companies made £2.8bn in operating profits and paid out £27m in bonuses to senior executives.
Check out the lists below of both the cleanest and dirtiest beaches in the UK according to Business Waste.
The cleanest
- Treyarnon Bay, Cornwall - 50
- Shell Bay, Dorset - 51
- Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset - 53
- Kennack Sands, Cornwall - 54
- Durdle Door East, Dorset - 55
- Constantine Bay, Cornwall - 56
- Combesgate Beach, Devon - 56
- Church Cove, Cornwall - 57
- Poole Shore Road Beach, Dorset - 58
- Praa Sands East, Cornwall - 67
The dirtiest
- St Anne's Beach, Lancashire - 4338
- Plymouth Hoe East Beach, Devon - 3611
- Bowleaze Cove, Dorset - 3349
- Thurlestone South, Devon - 3095
- Cleethorpes Beach, Lincolnshire - 2764
- Scarborough South Bay, North Yorkshire - 2663
- Blackpool Central Beach, Lancashire - 2502
- Broadstairs, Viking Bay, Lancashire - 2482
- Lyme Regis Front Beach, Dorset - 2464
- Anstey’s Cove Torquay, Devon - 2407
What's the best - or worst - beach you've ever visited in the UK? Let us know in the comments below.
