Bathing water quality data sourced from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs reveals nearly 300 pollution incidents have been recorded at England’s beaches since 2017.
There have been 107 pollution incidents so far this year – more than double the number reported in 2020 (51).
The types of pollution affecting water quality varies from sewage, which includes waste water from toilets, sinks, showers from homes and businesses, to oil and fuel.
Whatever the cause, any sort of pollution could be extremely harmful to people and devastating to the environment.
Here we reveal the 12 beaches in England which have had the greatest number of pollution incidents since 2017.