A new seawater-testing facility has opened at Worthing’s Splashpoint Leisure Centre, giving local swimming groups a way to investigate water quality throughout the year.
The project brings together Worthing Borough Council, Southern Water and South Downs Leisure. Southern Water has funded the technical equipment, while the leisure operator has provided laboratory space at the seafront centre.
Members of Muscle Beach Swimming Club, Worthing Bluetits and WorFolk have been trained to use the equipment. Their involvement puts people who regularly swim off Worthing at the centre of the project.
What will the testing do?
According to the council’s announcement, community sampling will complement the Environment Agency’s seasonal monitoring. It will help build a picture beyond the summer bathing season, when organised groups continue to enter the sea.
The facility uses Fluidion testing equipment. The partners are also discussing collaboration with academics, although the announcement does not set out a public sampling timetable or a live results service.
For swimmers, the distinction matters: opening a laboratory provides more opportunities to gather evidence. It does not, by itself, change the water or give a beach an official all-clear.
How it fits with official bathing-water checks
The Environment Agency tests for E. coli and intestinal enterococci, bacteria used as indicators of faecal pollution. Its explanation of the monitoring system describes four annual classifications: excellent, good, sufficient and poor.
Those classifications summarise evidence collected over time. They are different from a result for one sample, taken at one place and time, and designation as a bathing water is not a guarantee of clean water.
Worthing has three designated bathing waters: Beach House, Goring Beach and Heene Road. Goring and Beach House became designated sites in 2024.
What swimmers should know about Beach House
The council’s current bathing-water advice says Beach House is classified as poor and advises against bathing there until the classification is reviewed in November. The beach itself remains open.
The council has also reported work on identified pollution sources, including a property misconnection that was corrected and a collapsed sewer near Beach House that was repaired. Water-quality investigations therefore involve both sampling and tracing where contamination enters the system.
The community facility will add to that evidence. Swimmers should continue to consult the official beach-specific advice rather than treating the launch of the new equipment as a change to the existing warning.
