Weymouth Beach Bacteria Surge Exposes Official Inaction

Weymouth Beach has once again recorded a sharp rise in bacteria levels this August, echoing last year’s problems that cost it Blue Flag status.

In 2024, the spike was excused as the result of storm overflows, but with this year’s dry summer, that explanation doesn’t hold up. Even so, residents are still waiting for answers. Dorset Council and the Environment Agency promised to investigate last year’s pollution, but no findings have been released to the public.

Tim Day, chair of the Weymouth Harbour Consultative Group, told Dorset Council’s Harbours Advisory Committee that it was vital to track what is flowing into the sea through the harbour. “It is important to work out where it comes from,” he said. But so far, nothing concrete has been done.

Speculation about the source ranges from cruise ships off Portland, to agricultural runoff, to misconnected sewers, or even bird droppings. Harbours manager Ed Carter said he is “looking into” a water sampling system but hasn’t received any costings yet — and was quick to dismiss the idea that harbour boat users were at fault.

Data from the Environment Agency shows pollution readings were steady earlier in the summer before spiking in August. Yet official reassurances about “improvements” to sewer systems mean little when at least ten storm overflows still discharge into the River Wey, which runs directly into the sea at Weymouth Beach.

Council statements acknowledge a combined sewer system in the town, where wrongly connected pipes could be polluting streams, but residents have only heard vague assurances that they are “working with Wessex Water.”

The bottom line: the pollution continues, the beach suffers, and the promises keep piling up with no results.