County Durham’s beaches are being praised for improving water cleanliness over the last year - whilst England’s 19 dirtiest beaches are being named and shamed in the second annual Brown Flag Awards.
UK travel site Holidayparkguru.co.uk analysed the Environment Agency’s annual summertime water quality data at hundreds of beaches to reveal the grubby ‘winners’ for 2025.
The number of Brown Flag beaches in England leapt up from 13 in 2024 to 19 in 2025 – an increase of 46%.
The Brown Flag beaches are those rated as 'poor' by the Environment Agency due to bacteria such as e-coli from sewage and other waste.
The good news is that County Durham has not won any Brown Flag Awards in 2025, with none of its beaches rated as ‘poor’.
Meanwhile, water quality ratings at two local beaches have been upgraded over the last year. Seaham Hall Beach is now rated as ‘good’ for its water quality rather than ‘sufficient’ whilst Crimdon is ‘excellent’ rather than ‘good’ – suggesting that County Durham is heading in the right direction.
Seaton Carew (North) and Seaton Carew (Centre) have held onto their 'good' ratings whilst Seaton Carew (North Gare) has held onto its 'excellent' rating.
Overall, 33% of County Durham’s beaches are rated as ‘excellent’ for water cleanliness, putting it in 15th position compared to England’s other seaside counties.
Previous ‘winners’ that held onto their Brown Flags for 2025 include beaches in Blackpool, Weston Super Mare and Bognor Regis.
There are also several newcomers (or should that be ‘Poocomers’?) that have won Brown Flags for the first time, including beaches in Worthing and Lyme Regis.
Holidayparkguru.co.uk is once again offering free brown flags so that the 19 winners can warn summer swimmers about their poor rating. Each flag is tastefully decorated with a poo emoji. Somerset was the only county that took up the generous offer of a free flag last year – as it was used by campaigners during a clean water protest.
Northumberland, Dorset and Devon make up the top three for clean beaches.
Once again, Lancashire comes bottom of the league table with none of its beaches being graded as ‘excellent’ for water cleanliness.
Campaigner and sea-swimmer, Robbie Lane from holidayparkguru.co.uk said: “We had hoped that we’d be handing out fewer Brown Flags this year – but things have gone down the pan. Congratulations to County Durham, which has avoided winning any Brown Flag Awards for the second year in a row. Some beaches have also made positive progress over the last year. A third of beaches tested in County Durham are rated as ‘excellent’ for their water quality in summer – including one of the three testing spots in Hartlepool. Do your research this summer and you’ll be saying “wish you were here” rather than “wish I’d worn a hazmat suit”. A full list of the three star swimming spots can be found at https://www.holidayparkguru.co.uk"
The Brown Flag Awards Winners 2025
The Brown Flag Awards are reserved for those select beaches that score a 'poor rating' from the Environment Agency’s water quality tests.
In alphabetical order by county:
- Porthluney in Cornwall
- Coastguards Beach, Erme Estuary in Devon (Newcomer for 2025)
- Lyme Regis Church Cliff Beach in Dorset (Newcomer for 2025)
- Southsea East in Hampshire
- Deal Castle in Kent (Newcomer for 2025)
- Dymchurch in Kent (Newcomer for 2025)
- Littlestone in Kent
- Blackpool North in Lancashire
- St Annes North in Lancashire
- Heacham in Norfolk
- Weston Main, Weston Super Mare Sand Bay and Weston Super Mare Uphill Slipway in Somerset
- Dunster Beach in Somerset
- Blue Anchor West in Somerset (Newcomer for 2025)
- Bognor Regis, Aldwick in Sussex
- Worthing Beach House in Sussex (Newcomer for 2025)
- Tynemouth Cullercoats in Tyne and Wear
- Littlehaven Beach in Tyne and Wear (Newcomer for 2025)
- Scarborough South Bay in North Yorkshire
- Bridlington South Beach in East Riding of Yorkshire
‘Newcomers’ are either newly designated bathing spots with a poor rating or existing bathing spots that have been downgraded. Three of Weston Super Mare’s testing locations are rated as 'poor'. They've been awarded one Brown Flag Award to share as Robbie isn’t flushed enough to afford three flags.
It is worth noting that large resorts have several beaches and testing points, and it may just be one section of the beach that is designated as being ‘poor’.
HolidayParkGuru.co.uk's County-by-County League Table for Clean Beaches
For the 2025 county league table, Holiday Park Guru examined data from every designated bathing beach in England. They determined the percentage of beaches in each county that received the Environment Agency’s highest water cleanliness rating (three stars = “excellent”).
The aim is to help UK holidaymakers assess the likelihood of swimming in a seaside resort with top-quality bathing water.
Northumberland ranks top, with more than 90% of its beaches being three-star stunners that achieve the highest score possible for water cleanliness. Dorset, Devon and Cornwall are also highly rated.
Once again, Lancashire is rock bottom of the county league table with none of its ten designated bathing spots achieving the Environment Agency's coveted three-star ‘excellent’ rating for cleanliness. Somerset, Cumbria, Merseyside and Kentare all in the bottom half of the league table.
The Isle of Wight, County Durham, Lincolnshire and Suffolk deserve praise, with all of their designated bathing areas gaining one of the top two ratings (‘good’ or ‘excellent’).
Percentage of beaches rated 'excellent' by the Environment Agency for sea water cleanliness. From best to worst, along with their position last year.
- Northumberland: 92% (↑5 places compared to last year)
- Dorset: 87% (↓1)
- Devon: 86% (↓1)
- Cornwall: 82% (=)
- Lincolnshire: 78% (↑2)
- Hampshire and New Forest: 73% (↑2)
- Isle of Wight: 73% (↑2)
- Norfolk: 69% (↑6)
- Suffolk: 67% (↓6)
- Yorkshire: 52% (↑6)
- Essex: 50% (=)
- Tyne and Wear: 50% (↓7)
- Sussex: 47% (↓ 1)
- Kent: 42% (↑1)
- County Durham: 33% (↑2)
- Merseyside: 29% (↓6)
- Cumbria: 25% (↓4)
- Somerset: 10% (=)
- Lancashire 0% (=)
(N.b. Some counties have been combined to simplify the table, such as East and West Sussex and Yorkshire’s counties)
How was the data gathered for the Brown Flag Awards?
Holiday Park Guru used Environment Agency data based onabout 7000 samples at more than 400 bathing waters. It is ‘calculated annually based on samples from the previous four years”. (Source: Environment Agency). They then excluded rivers and lakes and just focused on England's beaches.
The water quality readings look for intestinal enterococci and escherichia coli (e-coli) levels to see whether there is ‘faecal matter’ in the water. This comes from ‘sewage, agricultural livestock, wildlife, birds and road drainage’ according to the Environment Agency.
Each bathing resort receives an official Environment Agency score of: three stars (excellent), two stars (good), one star (sufficient) or zero stars (poor). Overall, 67% of England’s monitored resorts currently score a three star rating whilst 5% score zero stars. The latter is an increase on last year.
It is worth noting that water quality readings are only taken from 15th May - 30th September. During the winter, water quality tends to be lower along England’s coastline as higher rainfall causes more sewage and waste water to overflow into the sea and into rivers.
Holidayparkguru.co.uk is an independent blog that mostly focuses on UK staycations. It has a sister site called isleofwightguru.co.uk. Robbie Lane is a travel blogger and former BBC journalist who also runs thesleepguy.co.uk