England’s swimming waters five times more likely to be polluted than in EU, research finds

A ‘poor’ rating means water quality falls below acceptable level for safe bathing, meaning it contains too large a quantity of bacteria such as intestinal enterococci and E coli. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

English swimming waters are five times more likely to be polluted than those in the EU, new research has revealed.

Experts have said that the country is in danger of becoming the “dirty man of Europe” again as it falls at the bottom of the leaderboard for bathing water which is free of bacterial contaminants.