Designation of Bathing Waters

Throughout the Vale bathing beaches have been classified as either Designated or Non-Designated.

This classification is in accordance with 1976 European Directive (76/160/EEC) which required Member States to identify popular bathing areas and to monitor water quality throughout the bathing water season (May to September). 

The directive defines ‘bathing water’ as all running or still fresh waters or parts thereof and

sea water, in which:

      Bathing is explicitly authorised by the competent authorities of each Member State, or

      Bathing is not prohibited and is traditionally practised by a large number of bathers.

These designated waters are sampled by the Environment Agency Wales; who produce an annual report on the quality of bathing waters throughout Wales.

The Vale Council recognises that not all our beaches can be classified as ‘Designated’ however are still occasionally used by bathers.  Therefore we sample these non-designated beaches using the same methods as the Environment Agency.

At present, each bathing water site is sampled for compliance with microbial and physio-chemical standards.  The two main standards used to assess the biological quality are total coliforms and faecal coliforms.  These are bacteria found in the guts of humans and animals, and are an indication of faecal pollution.

From 2012 the monitoring of bathing waters will commence under a new revised Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC).  This new Directive applies more stringent biological targets that will be required to be met.  Bathing water quality results will also be analysed over a four year period.  To find out more about how bathing water quality assessment is changing please see the Environment Agency website.