Deal Boxing Day Dip 2024: 'Great tradition' annual swimming event since 1981 at beach in Kent cancelled over poor water quality

The annual Boxing Day swimming event takes place in Deal, Kent, but organisers have confirmed it is not going ahead this year. Scores of swimmers have taken part in the annual Boxing Day Dip in Deal since it started in 1981.

Deal Town posted on X, formerly Twitter: “DEAL Boxing Day Dip which brings in thousands of spectators has been CANCELLED. Residents had been dreading cancellation this year since Dover District Council put up a no-swim warning notice on the beach”.

It comes after the water quality off the town’s coast was downgraded to “poor” following investigations by the Environment Agency. Tests by the EA have uncovered heightened traces of E. coli and intestinal enterococci, which is found in human waste and can cause diarrhoea and sickness.

The town’s current score will remain in place until November 2025 when a new classification will be released following tests between May and September. Dover District Council (DDC) has introduced the do-not-swim warning following guidance from the EA. It has put up a temporary sign outside the Royal Hotel car park near the town pier, but a more permanent one will shortly be in its place.

SOS Whitstable, a campaign group against sewage pollution based in Kent, shared their grievance on X about the event being cancelled. The group wrote: “One of our great traditions, the Boxing Day dip, has been cancelled in Deal because of a no swim warning due to high E. Coli levels. The swim is a charity event which usually raises £7,000 for good causes. Will you be donating this money instead @SouthernWater?”.

Users responded to Deal Town’s post on X saying that they were disappointed at the event being cancelled. One user said: “Such a shame as it's a great event, raising lots of money for charity”. While another wrote: “Disappointing, sad and an utter disgrace to the water company’s”.

Earlier this year, Southern Water said it had spent the £3.9m funding pot on repairing sewers and refurbishing pumping stations in 2017. In a recent statement, it said bathing water quality “is very rarely impacted by a single issue”.

A spokesman told KentOnline: “No high samples correspond with combined sewer overflow (CSO) releases. Instead, we must work with the local authority and other partner organisations to identify all likely sources of pollution including misconnections/illegal connections, private drainage and our own sewers.

“During the summer, the EA advised it had increased testing at Deal Castle, but has yet to link any issue with water quality there back to Southern Water. Deal Castle was rated as sufficient in 2023 due to a particularly wet summer where pollutants, including faecal bacteria, will have been washed off farms and roads into the sea”.

The spokesman added: “We’ve been working with the council and the EA to investigate potential sources. We found a number of illegal connections in the area where waste pipes from homes were wrongly plumbed into surface water only drains.

“One possibility is holiday homes with poor plumbing and this will be a focus of investigations. High samples appear to correlate with holiday periods when many holiday homes in the area are in use.”