Northumbrian Water has announced positive results for the region’s bathing waters, with North East coastlines maintaining or improving on high standards.
The water company has maintained it’s classifications of 33 out of 35 beaches meeting Defra’s highest standards of ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ – with no classifications dropping this season.
Marsden, in South Shields, has improved from ‘Good’ to ‘Excellent’.
Richard Warneford, Wastewater Director at Northumbrian Water, said:
“33 of our region’s 35 Bathing Waters continue to meet Defra’s highest standards of ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’, and we’re proud that every one of our beaches has either maintained or improved its classification this year without any deteriorations.”
“This achievement means that 95% of people in the North East live within an hour of a fantastic beach, reinforcing the region’s reputation for clean, safe coastal waters".
Northumbrian Water monitors all storm overflows and uses this data to drive improvements. Over the past 18 months, the company has introduced and started to expand its £20 million Smart Sewer project in Tyneside, helping to reduce reliance on storm overflows.
Looking ahead, Northumbrian Water is investing £1.7 billion between 2025 and 2030 in a major environmental programme aimed at stopping storm overflow spills and enhancing water quality across the region.
Two bathing waters remain in the ‘Poor’ category for this year, as below:
Cullercoats - Since 2017, we have led an investigation, alongside the Environment Agency and North Tyneside Council, into the reasons behind the water issues at Cullercoats. During this time, we have made improvements to our network and also to local authority assets, including carrying out borehole monitoring work. Previous investigations have shown no evidence that our assets are the primary cause, with contaminated groundwater likely to be a significant factor, however, we are continuing to investigate. Work continues to progress in partnership with the Environment Agency and North Tyneside Council.
Littlehaven - Littlehaven was a newly classed bathing water in 2024, and much like the majority of new bathing waters nationally, it was originally classed as poor for its first year. It has remained at this classification this year, and we know it can take time to bring a new bathing water up to standard. We will be carrying out investigations alongside our partners at the South Tyneside Council and the Environment Agency to find the causes of this, and we will carry out project work as necessary under our Water Industry National Environment Programme. As part of these investigations, we will be using some innovative techniques, such as flying drones to collect data, to help make improvements as quickly as possible.
Richard added: “Bathing Water quality can be affected by factors such as agricultural and highway run-off. Where standards fall below ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’, we will continue working with partners to understand the causes and take action to raise water quality to the highest possible level.