How Clean Is The Sea Around Brighton?

The sea around Brighton does not conform to the standards of cleanliness specified by the Blue Flag. They have immense scope for further improvement as they do not conform to the quality of cleanliness achieved by the Blue Flag resorts, which are considered to be a model for spotless tidiness. Beaches at Brighton and Hove are not as clean as they should be.

Sewage from Brighton and Hove is discharged at Telscombe, which is located a mile offshore from the Portobello Outfall, and the bacteria are destroyed by dilution and the effect of sunlight. This is the reason that Brighton beach is relatively cleaner and less polluted than the other beaches in Brighton and Hove. Regular swimmers have not suffered from any infectious diseases caused due to regular and long periods of exposure to polluted water.

In the absence of a proper sewage treatment plant in the area, the polluted water has been getting diverted to a storm relief tunnel which was constructed with the aim of weathering the roughest of storms for about half a century, which despite the huge outlay of £50 million incurred, has been unable to cope with heavy storms in the summer on at least a couple of occasions in the past.