SAS believe that any waterbody, especially those used by bathers, kayakers, swimmers or paddlers deserves the same protection and monitoring as coastal waters.

Current government guidelines say, that for an application to be considered as a bathing site it needs to check some boxes. The flowchart below is based on the government agency’s current evidence requirements that they use in assessing an application and do not reflect our view.

Think carefully about the length of river you are applying for. When selecting the waterway, an important consideration is that the environmental agency will only test at one location per designated bathing site. Are the facilities available to the whole stretch of river? Is there easy access across the whole length of river? Applying for two separate stretches of water may be a better approach to benefit from multiple testing locations.

If your site isn’t suitable for designation don’t despair – not every site is. There are still lots of things you can do to raise awareness and help end sewage and other river pollution. You could find and join another local Protecting Wild Waters campaign, take part in a million mile clean, organise water quality testing or lobby your local MP and water company.