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.

Steady on. 'Sir' James Bevan, who is totally complicit in permitting the pollution of seas / rivers joined the Board of Glas Cymru, the parent company of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, as a Non-Executive Director on February 12, 2025. Welsh Water say "He was appointed to leverage his experience from his time as Chief Executive of the Environment Agency to support the company's investment and environmental goals." I wouldn't want him anywhere near a water company's investment or environmental goals.

I wish you beautiful, clean water for a lifetime, but don't be complacent about this guy and his "contributions".

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78vd147el5o

449 bathing sites in England are regularly tested between May and September, and 66% of sites were rated excellent and a further 21% rated good. This is based on EU standards.

According to Water UK less than a third of beaches would have met today's standards in the 1990s. As the trade body for the water industry, they obviously have a vested interest in saying this, but it does suggest that somebody was measuring something and the beaches weren't better.

There are 76 blue flag beaches in the UK.

Obviously there is room for improvement, and it's up to the OP and everyone else to decide where to go on holiday and whether they want to swim in the sea.

Exactly but who would expose their child to a known risk. A lot more people are aware now so with pressure perhaps things can improve

Have you watched the programme?

I doubt it

No - does it suggest a conspiracy around the awarding of blue flags and testing of water quality?

It’s good that you’re so angry with the current situation, but it would be a shame to cancel what will be a lovely holiday.
You can channel your frustrations by:

• signing this petition: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/end-the-profit-driven-sewage-pollution-scandal-1?bucket=other232_2026PeopleBeforePayouts&utmcampaign=2322026PeopleBeforePayouts&utmmedium=&utm_source=other
• writing to your MP
• following River Action https://riveractionuk.com

There was a demonstration that thousands of people went on back in November 2024, yet it barely made the news. I think another demonstration is needed!

Don’t be fooled by the excuses for deregulation! Regulations were put in place for a reason!

I wouldn't let my kids go anywhere near the sea after watching that.

Yes, they showed that a river was being tested at points furthest away from the pipes!

Why do you have to go to the beach, you can still go and go inland. We never go to beaches

Are you talking about the river in Oxfordshire?

I don't think it is a designated bathing area, so is the TV show referring to a different kind of testing?

There are very few inland designated bathing areas in the UK. One of them is on the Thames in Oxfordshire, but it has only been graded poor or sufficient, which is quite bad compared to other places.

For anyone who is interested, the links below explain what a designated bathing area is and provide data on testing results.

https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/

www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/designated-bathing-waters-explained/

Same. I swim 3x a week in sea. All year round.

It makes me so happy.

Why don’t you watch the programme? It will explain why others are feeling so upset.

I am not suggesting that anyone upset by the programme must go swimming.

I am just linking to websites that are helpful to people who do want to swim and want information on water quality.

From what I understand the programme has been very well reviewed, but it is a TV drama and I think other information is also helpful to people wanting to make a decision about swimming. The Outdoor Swimming Society campaign for better water quality and monitoring.

I am suggesting that you ought to watch the programme before commenting because your opinion after that would be more helpful to people who want to swim.
If you think it’s fine after that is what the OP is struggling with.

I have only commented on information on safe beaches.

I have read a summary of the programme and I have read your comments, but I am am still none the wiser on why watching the programme would change anything that I have written. If you have time, perhaps you could explain.

I am under the impression that both the Outdoor Swimming Society and the writers of the programme want there to be less pollution and more transparency about water standards.

If you think it’s fine after that is what the OP is struggling with.

I am genuinely sympathetic to anyone who is traumatised by watching a TV programme, particularly one relating to the death of a child.

However, there is a wider conversation on the thread about whether it is safe to swim anywhere in the UK. I wasn't sure where to find information about this, so I am now sharing that with others.

I can only conclude you are trying to do damage limitation.

You are presumably in the U.K.? Watch the programmes. The amount of time you’ve spent posting on here and researching other sources, you could have watched the first one.

Damage limitation of what? It's a thread on mumsnet.

If you don't want to swim in the sea or you don't find the information useful, don't click on the links.

I look up resources because I live on the coast and, like many people, I enjoy swimming and other sports in and on the sea, so this information is relevant to me and the economy where I live.

I'm surprised that you are returning to the thread, but don't want to sum up the information from the programme that you found useful, but as I said, it's just a thread on mumsnet.

My husband looked at all our local rivers. All of them are having raw sewage pumped into them more than 200 days of the year. And we are near the coast. Most of them are having raw sewage pumped into them at nearly 300 days of the year

The TV programme isn't what her scared us it's the presence of untreated shit in the river and seas where we live

I am genuinely astonished that some locals and many tourists will still swim in those same rivers and seas

I know of local people who are friends who have been desperately ill after swimming in the rivers in some cases hospitalized.

I didn't need a television program to tell me any of this but I am glad a television program is highlighting the issues

I am surprised you keep returning to the thread about a programme you haven’t watched.
I am not surprised you are worried about your local economy but I think it’s up to all of us to look after our environment. The private water companies put profits above the environment and people’s health, and paid themselves huge salaries.

There is no reason to suppose that people defending the sewage trade are employees or PR agents acting on its behalf.

There may well be some other reason.

I think they are less clean than the 90s. It’s been on a downward trend after efforts to clean up waterways.

70s and 80s was about as bad as now.

this is based on memory, I haven’t googled

As far as I can see it's a thread about whether it is safe to swim in the sea.

I have returned to the thread because I thought it was unfair to ask you questions without returning to see if you had answered them.

I'm going to conclude that you don't intend to do that, so having posted the information that I think is useful, I have nothing more to say.

We should be protesting our government, not cancelling British holidays.
Its an appalling situation and one that we as a nation should be ashamed of.

One of the issues was that the poor parents of the child who died relied on this kind if "helpful" information because the beach had the highest standard of clean water allegedly!