The UK's 'worst' beaches revealed - with waters so gross swimmers will 'wish they'd worn a hazmat suit'
The UK's 'worst' beaches have been revealed, as the bacteria from gushing sewage leads swimmers to say 'I wish I'd worn a hazmat suit'.
Brown Flag awards were announced this week in England which sees the iconic sites rated by water cleanliness.
Among the offending destinations are Bognor Regis, Aldwick and Blackpool North - all rated 'poor' by the Environment Agency due to summer water quality.
A further look at the 19 grubby 'winners' for 2025 indicates a poor showing for Lancashire, which came bottom of the league table as none of its beaches were graded 'excellent' for water cleanliness.
Meanwhile, Northumberland, Dorset and Devon's beaches were rated 'excellent' for water cleanliness.
The number of brown flag beaches - those rated 'poor' due to bacteria such as e-coli from sewage and other waste - leapt up from 13 in 2024 to 19 in 2025.
Campaigner and swimmer Robbie Lane from Holiday Park Guru said: 'We had hoped that we'd be handing out fewer Brown Flags this year – but things have gone down the pan.
'Do your research this summer and you'll be saying "wish you were here" rather than "wish I'd worn a hazmat suit".'
So, does your local beach make the infamous list?
Brown Flag Awards Winners 2025
In alphabetical order by county:
Porthluney in Cornwall
Coastguards Beach, Erme Estuary in Devon (Newcomer for 2025)
Lyme Regis Church Cliff Beach in Dorset (Newcomer for 2025)
Southsea East in Hampshire
Deal Castle in Kent (Newcomer for 2025)
Dymchurch in Kent (Newcomer for 2025)
Littlestone in Kent
Blackpool North in Lancashire
St Annes North in Lancashire
Heacham in Norfolk
Weston Main, Weston Super Mare Sand Bay and Weston Super Mare Uphill Slipway in Somerset
Dunster Beach in Somerset
Blue Anchor West in Somerset (Newcomer for 2025)
Bognor Regis, Aldwick in Sussex
Worthing Beach House in Sussex (Newcomer for 2025)
Tynemouth Cullercoats in Tyne and Wear
Littlehaven Beach in Tyne and Wear (Newcomer for 2025)
Scarborough South Bay in North Yorkshire
Bridlington South Beach in East Riding of Yorkshire
'Newcomers' refer to either newly designated bathing spots with a poor rating or existing bathing spots that have been downgraded.
Large resorts have several beaches and testing points meaning it may just be one section of the beach that is designated 'poor'.
Holiday Park Guru used Environment Agency data based on around 7000 samples at more than 400 bathing waters, 'calculated annually based on samples from the previous four years'. Rivers and lakes are excluded from the sample.
Water quality readings look for intestinal enterococci and escherichia coli (e-coli) levels to determine whether there is 'faecal matter' in the water.
According to the Environment Agency, this comes from 'sewage, agricultural livestock, wildlife, birds and road drainage'.
Each resort receives a score of either three stars (excellent), two stars (good), one star (sufficient) or zero stars (poor).
Currently, 67 per cent of England's monitored resorts score a three star rating whilst five per cent score zero stars. The latter is an increase on last year.
Water quality readings are only taken from May 15 - September 30. During the winter, water quality tends to be lower along England's coastline as higher rainfall causes more sewage and waste water to overflow into the sea and rivers.
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