To cancel UK holiday after watching Dirty Business

[Neilsparentsarecomingfortea]

I have booked a week away in Devon for partners 50th birthday. Lovely cottage with a hot tub.
However, since watching dirty business I am considering cancelling (will lose 3rd of booking - which isn't money I can easily write off) as I don't feel it's worth risking going on the UK beaches anymore. If my family were to become ill I would never forgive myself.
I am absolutely furious that EA have allowed this kind of corruption to continue for so long. And that the water companies are polluting our rivers and seas at such an alarming rate. How do they sleep at night?

Don't even get me started on the impact to our wildlife.
WWYD?
I have downloaded the surfers against sewage app but genuinely worried to allow my child onto the beach in future after seeing what happened to poor Heather and her family. Considering selling my campervan.

I live on the south coast a few minutes walk from the beach.

There are regular discharges of polluted shitty water that are not registered. You can see it and smell it.

The water companies are to blame mostly as the EA has been stripped to the bone and simply doesn’t have the resources or the power to police them adequately.

Totally agree with renationalising public utilities. It’s disgusting how they are profiting from us and failing to maintain infrastructure.

Nobody I know swims in the sea. Only tourists.

Just move up here to Scotland.
While Scottish Water is not perfect, and of course we still have pollution, it is absolutely not at the scale of privatised companies in England.

I live on the coast in Devon, and I have quite a few friends who swim every day in the sea with no issues. Just don't go in after heavy rain and check the app!.

Cancelling a holiday is very extreme. There is so much more to do here than beach days. There's an outdoors water park, steam trains, aquariums, zoos, farm attractions, adventure parks, Dartmoor, prehistoric caves...........

Yes, I know quite a few people who swim in the sea every day in tidal swimming pools in Fife. You have to be hardy though, especially at this time of year. We have beautiful beaches in Scotland but they tend to be quite undeveloped.

There is some monitoring and some spills are predictable - very heavy rain.

it is grim and sad though.

I would go but take precautions. Check for any alerts/ask lifeguards. Antiseptic on any cuts.

Tonnes of other lovely things in the area of the water quality is bad.

I live in the south west. Things aren’t great, but we’re okay and not son all the time! We regally go in the sea but use the SAS app to check out how safe things are. I think cancelling the holiday would be overkill BUT I do think it’s good to hear this - maybe if more people were vocal then SWW would sort themselves out.

Agree, but it's flipping cold to go swimming in Scotland!! :-)

Beaches everywhere suffer pollution, have done for decades. It’s no different abroad. Plastics, sewage, marine waste. If you’re going to boycott everything and everywhere that’s polluted, you’ll never go anywhere.

I’m so glad I live in Wales and that Welsh Water is non profit making and has no share holders. It’s not perfect but it is better. English water companies are a disgrace.

Unreasonable to cancel but you can take precautions like the surfers app.
Would also drink some full sugar coke straight after in the sea. Seems a bizarre one but with kayakers at the white water centre Trent Belly was well known and this was a prevention technique same with Triathlon competitors.

Wash hands fully before eating and take some antibacterial hand gel.

As others say if dry less likely to be a problem.

OP I was livid after watching DB. I understand why you want to go nuclear on your holiday, we are off to Devon in may. Our very first family holiday was in Dawlish Warren so watching what happened to Heather made me really emotional 😭
However I have downloaded the apps, signed petitions and written to my local councillors about the issue. Im not cancelling any UK trips. We live in such a beautiful country and I love exploring it. I think there are better ways to channel your energy 😊

It's dreadful but I would still go and not swim in the sea.

Driving local shops and companies out of business by not going is hardly going to convince water companies to make an effort. In fact, if we all stop going, they will have free reign to discharge raw sewage in the sea.

So you watch a program on dirty water? Don't let it spoil your holiday - we went to Cornwall and found plenty of things to do. We still went on the beaches, just walked on the sand.

It's all up to you and whether you would feel safe and whether the vacations would feel right, so we can't really decide for you, these are your personal feelings after all. I'd say it's a bit extreme imo, the impressions after watching something tend to fade over time and you might end up regretting calling it all off.

We have pretty much stopped ever taking the children to the sea. I think I stopped about a decade ago when I realised the scale of the sewage dumping. I am surprised people still do.

Round here there seems to be discharges most days of the year. It's disgusting.

And it's one thing that we are deprived of the joy of sea swimming but even worse for the wildlife that is being harmed.

Im not sure you can rely on red flags after seeing the series.
But i wouldnt avoid going

Yes I used to dinghy sail on the Tyne and the only time I got sick after sailing was when I skipped the traditional post sailing vodka and coke

I voted YABU. Not just for the holiday but the fact you weren’t aware. Labour has stopped the bosses of the four big water companies from paying themselves a bonus worth £4 million pounds. Under the previous Tory government not only were the water companies being horribly negligent but they were rewarding themselves too.

It will cost billions to sort this all out. The Tories didn’t care and didn’t want to fix it, neither will Reform who only care about enriching themselves and their rich friends.

It's the only way it will change though.

YABU because why does a UK holiday have to involve swimming in the sea? Devon is stunning and there’s plenty of other things to do in the vicinity.

Go up to the Highlands of Scotland if you want a (very cold) river swim, they are among the cleanest rivers in the whole of Europe.

Those of us in Devon swim all year round in the sea. 🤷🏻‍♀️ You do have to be mindful of when you’re going in. Some beaches are more problematic than others. There are few to no sewage discharges in the summer and little agricultural run off because less rain. It’s the same in all coastal areas of the UK. I won’t swim within a week or two of a discharge, but otherwise, fine. I’ve been sea (and river) swimming a good chunk of my adult life here and never been ill. The weever fish scare me much more than sewage does. 😬 Bring some water shoes if sandy. We also have beautiful rivers, especially on Dartmoor.

YANBU
I wouldn't go in any water anywhere in the UK that isn't a swimming pool. It's all filthy.

I live in Devon. Increasingly we are seeing the beaches closed because of sewage, including during the high tourist season. There have also been instances of people both seeing/smelling sewage and becoming ill when the authorities have given the all clear for the beach to be open. It’s horrifying.

OP isn’t overreacting, unfortunately. It’s a national scandal.

Well it’s an entirely fixable situation. Demand that untreated sewage isn’t pumped into the sea.

The Surfers Against Sewage app is really good. I swim regularly but don't go in after there's been really heavy rainfall the day before (as the sewage system does get overloaded by the rain around here) and also always check on the app beforehand too. The water companies and EA are appalling but this was a tv programme and so designed to sensationalise to a certain extent. Hopefully this may provide a rocket up their collective backsides and they will improve but in the meantime, use your common sense and the app and you and your family should have a lovely holiday.