Bathing Water Quality
People visiting a beach will want to use the water for a variety of activities and want to do this in the knowledge that it will not have a bad impact on their health.
In England the Bathing Water Directive is administered by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and is implemented by the Environment Agency (EA). On beaches that have been designated as bathing waters, the EA are guided by the Bathing Waters Directive, which has been made stricter, setting out tighter water quality standards to protect beach users throughout the bathing season. Not all beaches are designated as bathing waters, in East Lindsey there are 7 beaches designated as bathing waters. These are Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Mogg's Eye, Anderby, Chapel St Leonards, Ingoldmells South and Skegness.
The bathing water season extends from mid-May to the end of September, throughout this period the EA sample bathing water quality on a weekly basis. This process helps classify the quality of the bathing water associated with the beach. The responsibility for displaying public information at a bathing water lies with its 'bathing controller' which on 6 of the 7 of the beaches in East Lindsey is the District Council. The 'bathing controller' has a duty to make information available to the public by displaying it on notice boards. These notices indicate the bathing water quality (poor, good or excellent) at that particular beach.