Before you swim

• Cold water

  Water below 15°C can cause cold water shock: you can lose control of your breathing and movement, and your heart rate rises quickly. The RNLI advises entering slowly, never jumping or diving straight in, and splashing cold water on your neck and face first.

• If you get into trouble, float

  Tilt your head back with your ears submerged, relax and breathe normally, and move your hands and legs gently to stay afloat. The RNLI says that once your breathing is under control you can call for help or swim to safety.

• Go with others

  RLSS UK says to go with friends or family, to take a way of calling for help, and, if you fall in or tire, to stay calm and float on your back.

• If you see someone in trouble

  Do not go into the water yourself. RLSS UK’s Water Safety Code says to call 999 (at the coast, ask for the Coastguard) and to throw them something that floats. 112 also reaches the emergency services in Ireland and across the EU.

• Weirs, locks, sluices and pipes

  Keep out of the water near them: they are often linked with strong currents. The Environment Agency’s release says swimming within 36 metres of its structures is an offence (a fine of up to £1,000) and that jumping or diving from them is prohibited.

• Blue-green algae

  GOV.UK says: You cannot tell by looking whether a bloom is toxic, so assume it is. Avoid skin contact and keep children and pets away from the water. Report a bloom to the Environment Agency’s 24-hour line, 0800 80 70 60.

• Heavy rain, cuts and illness

  UKHSA says: Rain, wind and high tides can lower water quality for a while. Cover cuts with a waterproof plaster before swimming and wash them thoroughly afterwards, and wash your hands with soap and water. If you are ill with diarrhoea or sickness after swimming, seek medical help, say you swam in open water, and do not swim again until at least 48 hours after the symptoms stop.

• Leptospirosis

  It is rare in the UK. It can spread from freshwater such as rivers, canals and lakes, where water carrying infected animal urine gets into the mouth, eyes or a cut. The NHS advises covering cuts with waterproof plasters and showering soon afterwards.

Access

Access is by landowner’s permission or tolerance unless a source says otherwise. The rules differ from country to country, and in some places the law gives a right of access: check signs and local rules. Leave if asked.

How to read a classification

Each authority classifies a bathing water from its samples, in its own words (Excellent, Good, Sufficient or Poor in most of Europe), with a year. A classification describes samples taken over several seasons, not today’s water. The Environment Agency says a Poor classification means an advisory sign is put up, and that a single sample is not a pass or a fail.

What the layer shows

The swimming layer is coming to the apps. This is what it will show.

• Official bathing waters, with the classification the authority gives, its year, the authority’s name and a link to the authority’s own page.
• Today’s pollution-risk notice, where an authority publishes one, with the time it was issued, and the status of storm overflows near a place from the water companies that publish it, as an indication only.
• Algae notices and bathing advice, where an authority gives them, in its own words and with its date.
• Places mapped for swimming by OpenStreetMap contributors, marked as mapped places. There is no official monitoring that we know of at these, and the app says so.
• Facts such as lifeguards, toilets and parking, only where a source says so.

A notice is what the authority says on the day. Where there is none, that is not the same as nothing to worry about: sewage and other pollution can be present without one.

Report a problem, or ask for a place to be taken down

Write to us at [email protected] with the place’s name and what is wrong: access changed or closed, a hazard or algae, the wrong location, a request from a landowner or manager, or a person visible in a photo. We remove a place the same day we have read the request. For a hazard or pollution, tell the authority too (in England and Wales the Environment Agency’s incident line is 0800 80 70 60), and in an emergency call 999 or 112.

This page sets no cookies. When the app asks our server for a notice it names a place or a map area; apart from the web server’s request logs (see the privacy policy), our server keeps no record of what any phone asked for.