THE Environment Agency (EA) has confirmed 98 per cent of monitored bathing waters in Devon meet high quality standards.

A third of England’s monitored bathing waters can be found in Devon and Cornwall, and today, Tuesday, November 25, the Environment Agency has revealed that nearly all of them meet the high standard set for enjoying the water.

The Environment Agency has published the 2025 bathing water classifications for 449 designated bathing sites in England.

Of these, 87 per cent meet standards for ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’ classification. This is an improvement on 2024 and means swimmers can benefit from a higher number of better-quality bathing sites than last year.

For Cornwall and Devon, clean waters are not just important for attracting tourism and business but for the people who live here all year round.

Sampling was done at 154 sites this season, of which 129 bathing waters were classed as ‘Excellent’, 20 as ‘Good’, 2 as ‘Sufficient’ and 3 as ‘Poor’.

The Environment Agency understands public concern about the impact on beaches and rivers by water companies, which is why it inspected 335 South West Water sites and assets last year.

And it is on course to doubling the number of inspections by April 2026 as part of the overall goal of 10,000 inspections.

Locations for both water company and agricultural inspections are prioritised according to environmental sensitivity.

For instance, sites that impact bathing waters and rivers that aren’t meeting the required environmental standards.