SOLENT BATHING WATER QUALITY AWARDS SCHEME DETAILS AND RESULTS

Bathing Water Schemes Details

All beaches regularly used for bathing (private or Local Authority managed), non-designated as well as designated, can apply for an award under the scheme. Please contact the Solent Forum if you manage a beach or water body and would like to apply for an award, and we will include you in the next request for applications. The classification of the award is based on a minimum of 16 samples from the previous summer and assessed under the Bathing Water Regulations. Where the beach is a designated bathing water beach, the Environment Agency (EA) makes the assessment. If the beach not designated, assessments need to be sent in and verified by the EA. The samples are assessed for faecal contaminants, Intestinal Enterococci and Escherichia coli, and the overall classification of the beach at the end of the season is made to one of the following standards:

• Poor - No award made
• Sufficient 1 blue star - Award with 1 star
• Good 2 blue stars - good standard Award with 2 stars
• Excellent 3 blue stars - excellent standard Award with 3 stars

It is a condition of the award that a Bathing Water Profile is provided for each beach and that information about the award, as well as the potential for short term pollution events, is displayed at each beach. The profiles provide lots of information about the beach and include daily pollution risk forecasts based on the effects of rain, tide and wind on bathing water quality. These factors affect the levels of bacteria that get washed into the sea from livestock, sewage and urban drainage via rivers and streams and how they disperse. When these factors combine to make short term pollution likely they issue a pollution risk warning on the top of the Bathing Water Profile webpage for each beach. Further government guidance on signage is available at: Bathing water information and signage rules for local councils.

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