Designation of Whitley Lake (Kite Beach), Shore Road as a Bathing Water by Defra

Human sewage pollution isn’t the only form of pollution in Poole Harbour but it’s certainly one of the most unpleasant, affecting locals, tourists and the shellfish industry alike.

Currently Whitley Lake (which includes Kite Beach) is not a designated as a bathing water and therefore doesn’t need to be monitored in the same way that designated seafront beaches are.

Given the thousands of beachgoers per bathing season (May to September) and the amount of year-round activity in the kite area, it seems sensible to have the area designated as bathing quality water.

This will take a year or so to achieve (and we may not win) but once designated the water will be sampled 20 times during the bathing season by the Environment Agency for faecal indicator organisms (E-Coli and Intestinal Enterococci) – data that would be of great benefit to the struggling shellfish industry as well as recreational users.

There’s a lot of detailed information about Pollution in Poole Harbour on our BeachPeople.club site under ‘Articles’ but if you would like to be kept updated about the bathing water designation process, or better yet help out then please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we’ll take it from there

Kind regards

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BeachPeople is an Ocean Sports Club based by the flat sandy beaches of Sandbanks in Poole – find out more about us at BeachPeople.club

(Distributed to homes around the Harbour Sept & Oct 2021)

(Update 6th October 2021 - content modiified following feedback form Wessex Water)