'Poor quality' water at Tyneside beaches

WATER quality at two Tyneside beaches remains "poor" even as the majority of North East bathing spots are now rated "good" or "excellent" according to the Environment Agency.

- By SAM VOLPE

Cullercoats Bay

Water at Cullercoats Bay and at Littlehaven beach in South Shields has "failed to meet the standards required", bosses said.

That's according to the agency's 2025 bathing water classification. Across the country, a total of 449 bathing sites have been rated either "excellent", "good", "sufficient" or "poor". Nationwide, 417 of those are rated as at least "sufficient".

A total of 32 were classified as "poor" - including the two on Tyneside. These results are based on the last four years of testing by the Environment Agency.

The monitoring looks for indicators of pollution that could cause risk to bathers' health - this includes E.coli and intestinal enterococci.

Jim Heslop, Environment Agency Manager said: "Once again, it is fantastic to see that so many of our beautiful beaches here in the North East have been rated as Excellent or Good.

"Our monitoring work helps people make informed decisions about where to bathe, and results like this help boost tourism and the local economy.