Picture this. You arrive at the beach lathered in SPF-50, with your summer read in hand and a gentle sea breeze blowing through your hair. Get onto the sand, however, and your toes are covered in the gloop and grot of a grimy beach. It’s not the paradise you pictured, that’s for sure.
And that’s an all-too-common story on UK beaches at the moment. Earlier this year, reports of sewage and agricultural pollution at the country’s beaches hit the headlines, forcing some authorities to ban swimmers from entering the water.
But which UK beach is the dirtiest? To find out, rubbish removal company Clear It Waste rummaged through 400 beaches across the UK and gave each one an overall water cleanliness score, based on factors like suspension due to sewage and the average amount of two types of bacteria – E.faecalis and E.coli.
According to the study, the dirtiest beach in the UK is Wharfe at Cromwheel in Ilkney (near Bradford) , which had the highest count of E.coli and an overall low water cleanliness score.
Second place went to Blackpool North, one of the three Blackpool beaches on the list that banned visitors from swimming due to heavy contamination in June. Weston Main in North Somerset came in third.
Here is the full list of the dirtiest beaches in the UK, according to Clear It Waste.
- Wharfe at Cromwheel, Ilkney
- Blackpool North, Blackpool
- Weston Main, North Somerset
- Blackpool Central, Blackpool
- Blackpool South, Blackpool
- Dunster Beach, Somerset West and Taunton
- St Anne’s North, Fylde
- St Anne’s, Fylde
- Weston-super-Mare Sand Bay, North Somerset
- Heacham, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
Don’t fancy catching a nasty tummy bug next time you’re at the beach? Then it might be best to avoid these ones.
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