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16
May
Knaresborough swimming spot makes a worrying start to summer bathing season
The bathing water season officially began yesterday (May 15), but it got off to an inauspicious start at Knaresborough Lido.
The season is when the Environment Agency starts testing the water quality at England’s 451 officially designated bathing water sites, most of which are around the coasts.
Throughout the season, which runs from May 15 until the end of September, the agency will test the water at each site weekly over 20 weeks.
Knaresborough Lido is one of the 30 or so that are inland and last year the Environment Agency declared its water to be ‘poor’.
Faecal matter
Weekly testing throughout last summer found dangerously high levels of two organisms – intestinal enterococci (IE) and Escherichia coli (E coli), which both indicate the presence of faecal matter – most weeks. They can cause bad stomach upsets and cause serious illness.
Amounts of these bacteria are measured in colony-forming units (CFUs) per 100ml.
This year’s first water sample taken from Knaresborough Lido was found to have 2,000 CFUs of E coli. The Environment Agency limit for inland waters to be considered ‘sufficient’ is 900 CFUs – a level routinely exceeded last year, when the season’s first sample yielded 1,100 CFUs and the season’s average was 1,905 CFUs.
This season’s first sample from Knaresborough Lido was also found to have 160 CFUs of IE – well over twice the amount of last season’s first sample (64 CFUs), but not as much as the season’s average (405 CFUs).
A ‘sufficient’ rating requires a level of 185 or less.
David Clayden, chair of the Nidd Action Group, which campaigns for better water quality, said he was not surprised that the data revealed such a dismal start to the season.
He said:
Well it would be, wouldn't it? Nothing has been done yet to improve the Nidd for safe bathing.
Regulatory reform
Today also marks the re-opening of applications for new bathing waters, which have been closed since October 2023. Since then, the government has announced reforms to the Bathing Water Regulations to better reflect public use of popular swimming spots. Successful sites will be announced next year.
Environment Agency chair Alan Lovell said:
We know just how important England’s swimming spots are to people and to local economies, so our teams are out taking regular samples at bathing waters across England from today.
The information from those tests helps us keep people safe, target our regulation and encourage investment to drive up water quality standards. It’s part of our core commitment to protect people and the environment.
We also welcome the opportunity to improve the management of bathing waters through the incoming reforms as we all want to see better bathing water quality.
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