{"id":584834,"date":"2026-08-30T10:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/584834\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T10:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:22:12","slug":"tiny-bit-of-rain-and-the-sewage-comes-brighton-swimmers-vent-fury-at-sea-pollution-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/584834\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tiny bit of rain and the sewage comes\u2019: Brighton swimmers vent fury at sea pollution | Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m furious,\u201d says Jo Armstrong, 75, sitting on Brighton<\/a> beach with her daughter and granddaughter.<\/p>\n

Armstrong lives in Lewes, a town 8 miles from Brighton, and usually goes swimming in nearby Seaford in East Sussex<\/a> every day. But over the past week the water there has been too polluted to swim. \u201cBrighton beach was the only place that stayed clean,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In the week Friends of the Earth<\/a> ranked the UK\u2019s water companies for their environmental damage, and news of further sewage leaks emerged, the Guardian headed to Brighton beach to talk to swimmers. According to public data<\/a>, a sewage alert was issued twice at the beach in August, and 158 alerts recorded overall in 2025.<\/p>\n

Jo Armstrong usually likes to swim in the sea in East Sussex every day. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a tiny bit of rain and then the sewage comes, I just don\u2019t understand it. It\u2019s extraordinary that we can\u2019t have clean beaches,\u201d says Armstrong.<\/p>\n

This summer England has endured record-breaking heatwaves<\/a> during which scores of people have spent time on beaches and rivers. In Brighton, the state of the country\u2019s water is an issue on many people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n

Hildi Mitchell, 55, runs a programme called Pool to Pier<\/a>, where she teaches pool swimmers to swim safely in open waters. Increasingly, she is finding that pollution is stopping people from taking the leap to the sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are swimmers who have swum with us in the pool all year round but won\u2019t come out in the sea in the summer because they\u2019re worried about becoming ill,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Hildi Mitchell teaches pool swimmers to swim safely in the sea in Brighton. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

When it comes to the safety of the water, checking for sewage spills has become as important as checking the weather and tidal patterns. \u201cI would love to be able to swim anywhere, rather than thinking about trying to avoid pollution,\u201d Mitchell says.<\/p>\n

Through Pool to Pier, Mitchell offers free workshops to children from families on low incomes. \u201cThese families already have limited things they can do in the summer to keep their children active, healthy and entertained. Swimming<\/a> should be something that\u2019s free and available to local families, but it\u2019s not and that\u2019s really sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Veros, 59, has lived in Brighton for 22 years and swum all his life, but after falling ill due to what he believes was sewage pollution a few years ago, he now spends more time at Brighton\u2019s outdoor swimming pool than he does in the sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an enthusiastic swimmer, I can\u2019t get enough of it,\u201d Veros says. He used to have to skip his daily swim if there was a rainstorm or a sewage scare, but now the pool has given him an alternative. \u201cIt\u2019s the best thing to have happened to Brighton,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Greg Veros has switched to swimming in Brighton\u2019s outdoor pool after he fell ill, he believes, from swimming in the sea. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

But for Mitchell, there is nothing that can replace swimming in the sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about freedom. You\u2019re not constrained by the black line on the pool. Nobody\u2019s in your lane, you\u2019re not worried about getting in anyone\u2019s way. It\u2019s a place where you can just swim in the way you want to swim,\u201d Mitchell says.<\/p>\n

Anna Field, 54, moved to Brighton so she could swim regularly, but, like Mitchell, she says checking for sewage spills is as important as checking the weather. There have been several times when she has come down to the beach and could smell the sewage, although this has been less common this summer amid the dry weather. When pollution stops her from swimming, it\u2019s a bit like not being able to walk in the park because it\u2019s raining, \u201cexcept with this, you feel people [are] to blame\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anna Field and her husband, Jim, take the plunge in Brighton. Field checks for sewage spills before she goes for a swim. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

She is more angry than sad. \u201cI absolutely love being in the ocean. It\u2019s got its own personality, you look out of the window in the morning and it\u2019s a different colour from yesterday or on some days it will tell you, no, you\u2019re not coming in today,\u201d Field says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwimming is such a nice thing for people to be able to do and it\u2019s public, anyone can go in \u2013 it would be a real shame if that was less accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m furious,\u201d says Jo Armstrong, 75, sitting on Brighton beach with her daughter and granddaughter. Armstrong lives in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-584834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}