All swimming spots › Wyre, England
Can I swim at Fleetwood?
Wyre, England · Coastal
Checking…Seaside Award
Before you get in
A red flag means do not go in, whatever this page says.
If you get into trouble, float on your back until the cold shock passes. Full advice below.
In an emergency call 999 and ask for the Coastguard, or 112 in the Republic of Ireland.
Water quality today
The last fortnight
What this verdict covers
Independent site, not an official one. This verdict is about water quality. It does not tell you whether the water is safe to get into today.
How it has been rated
The annual classification for 2021 to 2025. Each one is calculated from samples taken over up to four bathing seasons, so these overlap and none of them describes today.
Every sample, 2024 to 2026
45 samples, 2024 to 2026. The highest E. coli count in them was 3,700 per 100ml, on 9 September 2024; the standard for Excellent is 250 or below and for Good 500 or below.
One bar for each sample, oldest on the left. The taller the bar, the more E. coli that bottle held.
The scale is the same on every beach on this site, which is why a clean beach looks flat — the bars are measured against the standard rather than against that beach’s own worst day. Hover or tap a bar for that day’s figures. A single count over a line is not a failed beach. The classification is worked out as the 90th and 95th percentile of four years of samples, so one bad morning does not decide it — and one good morning does not either. 3 of these are above the Good standard, so they are pinned to the top with a notch rather than the chart stretching to fit them.
What these bacteria mean for you
Neither one is what makes people ill by itself. They are markers: they live in the gut, so finding them means sewage or animal waste has reached the water, and whatever else came with it is likely there too.
The usual way to catch something is swallowing the water, and the usual result is a stomach upset. Ear, eye, chest and skin infections are the other common ones. Putting your head under and swimming with an open cut both raise the odds.
The riskiest time is the day or two after heavy rain, when storm overflows discharge and rain washes off farmland — including at beaches rated Excellent for the rest of the season. That is the whole reason this page shows you rainfall and discharges alongside the grade.
Fleetwood was rated Good for 2025, the second of the four grades in the Bathing Water Regulations. That grade comes from bacterial samples taken over several seasons, so it describes the beach's record rather than the water on any given day.
The Environment Agency issues a pollution risk forecast each morning during the bathing season for nearly every bathing water in England, and the water company publishes the status of its storm overflows every few minutes.
The regulator records this as a bathing water whose quality can be affected by heavy rain, which is why rainfall in the last 24 hours is shown above.
The rest of its file
What the regulator holds for this place. None of it describes the water today.
- Water
- Coastal
- Area
- Wyre, England
- Monitored outfalls within 5km
- 10 (nearest 0.9km)
- Affected by heavy rain
- Yes, per the regulator
Fleetwood holds Seaside Award for 2026.
- Seaside Awardthe UK award for a clean, safe, well-managed stretch of coast
Awarded by Keep Britain Tidy, 2026. An award is given once a year and says nothing about the water this afternoon — that is the verdict above. What a Blue Flag actually means.
Sea, wind, tide and weather
The sea and the weather here today and for the week ahead. Not the water quality verdict above.
Today
Rain, the week behind and ahead
The weather for the week ahead
Where it is, and what discharges near it
Directions to this bathing water
That is the Environment Agency’s sampling point, which is at the water rather than at a car park. Your maps app will take you to the nearest road it can reach.
The nearest mapped car park is about 80m away in a straight line. That is not a walking distance: OpenStreetMap knows where the car park is and nothing about the path, which may be longer, steeper or not there at all. It is tagged as free, as the mappers wrote it.
What is mapped at this beach
- Toilets about 230m away — charges a fee
- Beachside Cafe about 20m away
Straight-line distances from OpenStreetMap, not walking distances, and only what volunteers have mapped — something missing here may still be there.
Getting here without a car
- Nearest bus stop Pitch and Putt (by), The Esplanade, about 190m away
Straight-line distances to where the stop or station is, from the national registers of them. That a stop exists is not a promise that a bus calls at it — timetables are somebody else’s data and this page does not read them, so check the operator before you rely on it.
The record since 2020
In 2025, the 20 monitored overflows the Environment Agency lists against this bathing water spilled 501 times, for about 2,673 hours in total. Over the 2025 bathing season alone, 1 May to 30 September, 159 of those spills happened — 32% of the year. One of the monitors behind that figure was working for 78% of the season, so the real count may be higher.
- 2020596 spills · 2,870 hours
- 2021523 spills · 3,202 hours
- 2022384 spills · 1,482 hours
- 2023921 spills · 6,422 hours
- 2024745 spills · 4,740 hours
- 2025501 spills · 2,673 hours
These are annual totals for the whole year, not readings from today — today’s answer is the verdict at the top of the page. Figures come from the Environment Agency’s Event Duration Monitoring annual returns, which the water companies submit and the EA publishes, and the EA decides which overflows count as belonging to this bathing water.
What the regulator says about this beach
From the Environment Agency’s published bathing water profile for 2026. It describes the place and its catchment, not today’s water.
The beach itself
Fleetwood beach sits at the top end of the Fylde coastline, facing north into Morecambe Bay. The beach is mainly sandy with a small amount of shingle. It has a gently sloping profile with a slight drop off to the water at high tide.
What drains into it
The bathing water is located on the low lying Fylde coastline in Lancashire. The bathing water is flanked by urban areas all along the coastline with agricultural land dominating further inland. Most surface water in the catchment is diverted away from the bathing water.
More from the profile
Where the sewage works discharges
Fleetwood Sewage Treatment Works is located north of Fleetwood and discharges via a long sea outfall to the Lune Deeps in the Irish Sea.
What has been done about it
Sea Change, a £500 million coastal clean-up project, was launched in 1994 by the Environment Agency in conjunction with United Utilities, to improve bathing water quality in the Northwest, particularly along the Fylde Coast. Under this programme, United Utilities constructed a tunnel to provide storage for storm discharges and transferred flows from four coastal pumping stations, serving the Blackpool area to a new sewage treatment works at Fleetwood. This sewage works was upgraded in 2010. Storage tanks were installed at Fleetwood and Blackpool to reduce the number of storm overflow events. To the east of Fleetwood bathing water, Poulton and Hambleton Sewage Treatment Works were closed in the late 1990s, with their flows diverted to the new Fleetwood Sewage Treatment Works. Preesall Sewage Treatment Works has received various improvements over the years, including the addition of disinfection in 1999 to protect bathing water quality. Additional storm storage provision was added in 2007. In 2003, Pilling Sewage Treatment Works was upgraded with the installation of disinfection. Improvements were also made by United Utilities in 2008 to seven storm and emergency outfalls to protect bathing water quality in this area. In 2013 United Utilities upgraded Garstang Sewage Treatment Works to include disinfection treatment of the dsicharge and improved it’s storm storage provisions. In 2014, improvements were completed on four more storm overflows located on the Wyre Estuary. The Manchester Square Pumping Station and the Bloomfield Road storage tanks in Blackpool were upgraded in 2010. Additional storm sewage storage at Fleetwood Sewage Treatment Works and the Bloomfield Road storage tanks was completed in 2015. In 2015 Harrowside outfall pipe was replaced with a new, longer pipe that can deal with larger flows of storm water 1km out to sea. In April 2018 work was completed in the Marton Moss area to reduce the amount of surface water (rainwater) entering the sewer network and thereby reduce the number of spills from the Manchester Square and Chatsworth Avenue outfalls. Surface water connections in the area were redirected to a new surface water pumping station (Magnolia Pumping Station). The surface water is then pumped out to sea via Harrowside Outfall. Additional drainage basins (mostly dry, green open spaces) were created to store surface water during heavy rainfall. To ease the amount of water going through the combined wastewater network during heavy rainfall, an underground storm water tank was constructed at Fishers Field to store excess storm water until it can be treated. The Anchorsholme scheme was completed in 2019. This involved: the construction of a 30 metre deep storm tank to hold 12,000m3 of untreated stormwater, until it can be treated; the relocation of the pumping station; and building a long outfall pipe 3.7km out to sea. As part of the programme of work (2015-2020), monitoring equipment was installed on storm overflows close to bathing waters to identify where further improvements need to be made.
What the samplers see on the sand
Environment Agency samplers make observations of litter present on the beach at every visit, this includes assessments of sewage debris, litter and tar. At Fleetwood for the four year (2022-2025) assessment period where data is available, sewage debris was not noted at this site. Litter was not assessed as being sufficient to be objectionable, but was observed as being present on 61% of visits. Tarry residue was not noted at this site.
The council's part
To help improve bathing water quality we are working alongside Local Authorities through Turning Tides and a LOVEmyBEACH campaign.
Published by the Environment Agency under the Open Government Licence. The full profile carries more, including sections repeated for every beach that are not reproduced here.
Other swimming spots nearby
The closest bathing waters on the regulators’ lists, straight-line distance. Each has its own checks and its own verdict.
Check the official source
The regulator’s own page for this bathing water. If it disagrees with this one, believe theirs.
Fleetwood's official page at the Environment Agency · See it on a map
This page is not official. It reads published data and presents it plainly; if a sign at the beach says otherwise, believe the sign.
If you get into trouble
This is the RNLI’s advice, not ours.
Float. Tilt your head back with your ears in the water. Relax and let your breathing settle. Move your hands and legs gently to stay level. Your legs may sink, and that is fine, everyone floats differently. The first shock of cold water passes in less than a minute, so do not try to swim straight away. Once it has passed, call for help or swim to safety.
Caught in a rip current? Do not swim against it, you will only tire yourself out. If you can stand, wade out of it. If the water is too deep to stand, swim parallel to the beach until you are clear of it, then head for shore. Raise your hand and shout for help.
Nobody publishes a rip current forecast for beaches in Britain or Ireland, so this site cannot show you one. The RNLI has one for its own lifeguards. The public does not. Look at the water before you get in, and look for a channel where the waves are not breaking.
In an emergency call 999 and ask for the Coastguard. In the Republic of Ireland call 112 or 999 and ask for the Coast Guard.
Where there are lifeguards, swim between the red and yellow flags. They put those flags where it is safest that day and move them as the sea changes. A red flag means do not go in, whatever this page says. An orange windsock means the wind is blowing offshore and inflatables should stay out of the water. Most places on this site have no lifeguard at all.
This advice is the RNLI’s. Their Float to Live pages are worth two minutes of anyone’s time.
Use this page elsewhere
One sheet of A4 with a QR code to this page, for a clubhouse, a campsite reception, a surf school or a harbour office. The address is printed underneath in words, so it still works for anybody who would rather not scan a code.
Print a sign for FleetwoodOr put today’s verdict on your own site.
Put this beach on your own site
A small card showing today’s verdict for Fleetwood, updating itself. Paste this where you want it to appear. It loads nothing of yours and sets no cookies, and it costs your visitors about ten kilobytes, most of it the readings themselves.
Click the box to select it all. There is also a feed for this beach, if you would rather be told than have to look.