I’m delighted that a new community-led seawater testing facility has opened at Splashpoint Leisure Centre in Worthing, giving local swimming groups the opportunity to monitor the quality of our coastal waters throughout the year.
The new facility is the result of a partnership between Worthing Borough Council, Southern Water and South Downs Leisure, working alongside local swimming groups who are passionate about protecting our coastline.
As Worthing’s Cabinet Member for the Environment, I’m particularly pleased to see this project become a reality.
It represents an important step towards building a better understanding of water quality along our coastline, identifying potential sources of pollution and giving local people a more active role in protecting the sea they love.
A new facility for year-round seawater testing
The facility, based at Splashpoint Leisure Centre, allows local volunteers to analyse seawater samples collected from Worthing’s designated bathing waters.
Unlike the Environment Agency’s statutory monitoring programme, which operates during the bathing season from May to September, this community-led initiative will support testing throughout the year.
That’s particularly important in Worthing, where many people enjoy sea swimming in every season.
The additional information will help us understand how water quality changes under different conditions, including periods of heavy rainfall, and contribute to investigations into potential pollution sources.
The specialist equipment has been funded by Southern Water, while South Downs Leisure has generously provided the laboratory space.
Interestingly, the same testing technology was used to monitor water quality in the River Seine ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
It’s fantastic to see this equipment now being put to use here in Worthing.
Thanking Councillor Vicki Wells and our local partners
I want to pay particular tribute to my predecessor as Cabinet Member for the Environment, Councillor Vicki Wells, whose hard work helped make this project possible.
Vicki secured the funding from Southern Water and has been working with our brilliant volunteers, local MPs and partner organisations to bring the facility to Worthing.
This is a project that has taken considerable cooperation and commitment, and it’s important that everyone involved receives recognition.
I’m grateful to Southern Water for funding the equipment, South Downs Leisure for providing the space, and the many people who have worked behind the scenes to make the facility operational.
This new facility shows what can be achieved when the council, MPs, local partners and our community work together.
Putting Worthing’s sea swimmers at the heart of the project
One of the things I particularly welcome is the central role being played by local swimming groups.
Muscle Beach Swimming Club, Worthing Bluetits and WorFolk have all been involved in learning how to use the equipment and will help develop the monitoring programme.
These are people who know and love our coastline, many of whom swim throughout the year.
Their enthusiasm and commitment are helping to turn this project into a genuinely community-led initiative.
Mark Smith from Muscle Beach Swimming Club has welcomed the launch, highlighting the importance of building a clearer picture of local bathing water quality for groups that use the sea throughout the year.
I’m delighted that we’re able to support that work.
Citizen science can play an important role in gathering additional evidence, identifying potential problems and helping residents become more directly involved in protecting their local environment.
Understanding the challenges facing Worthing’s bathing waters
Worthing currently has three officially designated bathing water sites.
Goring Beach and Worthing at Heene Road are both classified as Good by the Environment Agency.
However, Worthing Beach House remains classified as Poor, highlighting why further investigation and improvements are so important.
In 2024, Worthing Borough Council and local community campaigners successfully secured official bathing water designation for both Worthing Beach House and Goring Beach, bringing the town’s total to three.
Those designations have helped provide greater scrutiny of water quality along our coastline.
The new facility will build on that work by gathering additional information throughout the year, particularly at Worthing Beach House.
There have already been efforts to identify and resolve pollution problems, including misconnections where household wastewater can enter drainage systems that discharge towards the sea.
We hope that these improvements will be reflected in future bathing water classifications, although the Environment Agency’s results for the 2026 bathing season have yet to be published.
Building the evidence needed to tackle pollution
The new facility isn’t simply about collecting more samples.
It’s about building a stronger evidence base so we can better understand the causes of pollution and identify where action is needed.
Discussions are already taking place with academic partners about how the growing collection of monitoring data could support wider research and analysis.
That offers exciting possibilities for the future.
The more we understand about the condition of our coastal waters, the better placed we’ll be to identify problems and work with the responsible organisations to address them.
Of course, community-led monitoring must complement rather than replace the important statutory work of the Environment Agency.
I’ve been calling for fully independent, year-round bathing water testing, and Worthing Borough Council has recently backed my amendments strengthening its position on this issue.
This new community facility is a welcome additional source of evidence, while the wider push for independent monitoring, transparency and accountability continues.
Working together for cleaner seas
Protecting Worthing’s coastline requires cooperation between the council, Southern Water, the Environment Agency, local swimming groups and the wider community.
It also requires a willingness to investigate all potential sources of pollution, including wastewater discharges, drainage misconnections and contaminated surface water runoff.
As both Worthing’s Cabinet Member for the Environment and the County Councillor for Worthing West, I’ll continue pressing for action across all the organisations responsible.
But it’s equally important to celebrate progress when we see it.
This new facility is a tangible example of local people being given the tools and opportunity to contribute directly to improving our understanding of the environment.
We want Worthing to have the coastal water quality it deserves, and I’m delighted to see our community playing such an active role in helping achieve this.
My thanks again to Councillor Vicki Wells, our swimming groups, South Downs Leisure, Southern Water, our local MPs and everyone who has helped bring this project to life.
I’ll look forward to seeing the programme develop and the valuable information it produces.
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