Dawlish Town
Dawlish Town beach has a mixture of sand and shingle. It follows the curve of the sheltered bay from Lea Mount to Langstone Rock for over a mile.
Great for swimming, with pleasure boat trips around the bay in summer.
There is a wide, scenic footpath on top of the sea wall at the back of the beach.
Overflow locations
The map below shows the locations of the storm overflows that have the potential to impact water quality at this bathing water.
The map shows whether or not a storm overflow is currently active, the time and duration of the last spill at that location, and our investment commitments that are specific to that overflow.
Dawlish Town storm overflow map
Water quality sample results
The graphs below show the significant reduction in harmful bacteria in the Environment Agency’s (EA) water samples since the 1990s. E. coli and Intestinal Enterococci exist in all open water - they are found in human and animal poo, and get into the water via sewage spills, road drainage, agricultural livestock, or wildlife and birds. The EA uses the levels of these bacteria to decide whether to award this beach bathing water status.
2025-2030 investment programme
To help reduce the risk of any environmental impact from our sewerage network, and to contribute towards improving bathing water quality at Dawlish beach, we have earmarked circa £1.8m of investment up to March 2025*.
Work was completed on Brook St Manor Gardens storm overflow in March 2022 to target an improved performance of 2 significant spills (greater than 50 metres cubed) per bathing season on average.
New surface water sewers were laid in the area to take rainfall from highways directly into the watercourse. A new storm storage tank was also constructed.
A large number of the roads in the Exeter Road area are connected to the sewerage network hence rainfall from these areas discharge from the storm overflow. We are looking to see if it’s possible to separate the surface drains from the sewerage network. By 2025, we will drain the rainwater directly to the sea via existing surface water sewers. Reducing the volume of water in the network will reduce the need for storm overflows to operate.
The 2025-2030 investment programme is currently being scoped out. If you’re a community group or part of a local network and would like to have your say see ‘Your Beach, Your Say, Our Investment’.
*Amounts earmarked for investment may change dependent on the final design of the optimal solution and costings provided by our supply chain.
4 year overflow spill information
The data shown in the table below is the reported annual total spill number for each overflow which has been identified by the EA for this bathing water.
The assignment of an overflow to the bathing water does not always mean an impact will occur, it can be dependent on a number of factors such as tidal state and weather conditions. Sometimes it has been allocated just for investigation purposes and has no impact at all.
All data collected goes through vigorous quality assurance processes before being included in the counts. Sometimes debris can trigger false spills to be recorded, resulting in potentially higher than actual spill numbers.
Number of spills
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barton Hill/Brunswick Place storm overflow, Dawlish | 31 | 20 | 21 | 25 |
| Brook House storm overflow, Dawlish | 0 | 8 | 1 | 1 |
| Brook Street Manor Gardens storm overflow, Dawlish | 42 | 20 | 26 | 33 |
| Elm Grove Road storm overflow, Dawlish | 4 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
| Piermont Place/Jubilee Bridge storm overflow, Dawlish | 31 | 7 | 21 | 7 |
| Royal Hotel pumping station overflow, Dawlish | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Sandy Lane pumping station overflow Main Flows, Dawlish | 44 | 23 | 32 | 32 |
| Sea Lawns pumping station overflow, Dawlish | 3 | 18 | 4 | 5 |
| Viaduct pumping station overflow, Dawlish | 9 | 14 | 21 | 20 |
| West Cliff Park/Lambeth Walk storm overflow, Dawlish | 6 | 11 | 9 | 8 |
The beach profiles were created in line with information provided by our partners, Environment Agency, RNLI, Keep Britain Tidy, MCS - Beach Guide and British Beaches.
