South West Water manages 27, or 35 per cent, of all of England’s Blue Flag beaches, it occupies 50 per cent of the top 10 list for spills and 60 per cent of the top 10 worst performers for hours of sewage discharges.

Budleigh Salterton (264 sewage discharges), Exmouth (228) and Sidmouth (158) made up the top three.

Here is what “On the same page” David Reed is doing, posted a day after David Parsley’s article below.

Revealed: Water firms dump sewage 2,380 times at iconic Blue Flag beaches

David Parsley inews.co.uk 20 June – (Extract)

Using the Government’s official data, The i Paper has found that 26 of England’s Blue Flag beaches discharged sewage into seas more than 30 times in 2024, while nine dumped waste more than 100 times.

In all there were at least 2,380 sewage spills at Blue Flag beaches over a total period of 15,291 hours last year.

Visitors to Devon, which has more Blue Flag beaches than any other region, were most likely to experience sewage spills.

The latest figures, which could threaten the Blue Flag status of the worst offending beaches, follow claims from water companies that they are investing in improvements to mitigate sewage spills.

However, last year’s spills at Blue Flag beaches were up on 2023’s figure of 2,101 discharges, while the total hours of spills were up from the figure of 14,834.

Many of the top 10 worst performing Blue Flag beaches in 2024 were covered by South West Water, which manages water and sewage services in the holiday hotpots of Devon and Cornwall.

The beachside towns of Budleigh Salterton (264 sewage discharges), Exmouth (228) and Sidmouth (158) made up the top three.

Exmouth, which pumped sewage into the sea for 2,279 hours in 2024, tops the list in this category. The town, which has been awarded Blue Flag status seven years in a row, saw 214 sewage spills over 1,983 hours in 2023…..

……While South West Water manages 27, or 35 per cent, of all of England’s Blue Flag beaches, it occupies 50 per cent of the top 10 list for spills and 60 per cent of the top 10 worst performers for hours of sewage discharges.

South West Water said: “It is important to address that there are many factors that contribute to whether or not a beach is awarded Blue Flag status and water quality is only one of them.”…..